This is so exciting!  Sarah from Real Life is coordinating an Operation Christmas Child Carnival – a lot of things are happening for this carnival, leading up to a live shoebox packing party on November 5th (see Sarah’s blog for details!).

I heard of Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child soon after I became a believer – and I literally cried when I heard about their mission and the lives they have touched through the years.  The young adults’ group I was involved in packed several shoeboxes that year, and I remember the glee I felt as I purchased little things for the little girl who would be receiving the shoebox I was packing – and more tears were shed as I bought a toothbrush for the shoebox.  Just being able to provide something so small but needed… what a blessing to me - not just the little girl who would one day use that toothbrush.

Having something concrete in my hands to hold while praying for a little girl far away also was amazing – I felt a connection to the little girl that would be receiving the shoebox.  I have no idea who received my box that year, but I know that a little girl and her family received some needed things and some fun things, love and prayers – and the Good News of Jesus Christ was shared with them as well.

I continued to put together shoeboxes through the years, but the past couple of years I haven’t done anything.  And I’ve realized how much I’ve missed that tradition, and how much I want the simple act of packing a shoebox for a child far away to become a tradition in our family.  Elias is at an age where I feel he will understand this – I want him to learn how to bless others!

So what are we going to do? We’re going to host a packing party! Unfortunately, we will not be hosting it on November 5th to link up with Sarah’s virtual packing party, but I hope to have a post up about ours on the 5th!

So stay tuned for details about our packing party, and please hop on over to Sarah’s to read more inspirational stories about Operation Christmas Child – and to participate yourself!

It’s time for our new Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE! I chose cherries to symbolize love because they…uhm, are red, they kinda sorta look like hearts and they are usually seen in pairs. That and my only other options from the fruit basket were lemons and limes. Not very love-ly.

The reason we chose LOVE this week is because of something that happened in our family. We sponsor two kids through Compassion. We give $38 a month to basically take care of this child’s entire life. This 38 measly dollars gives the kids schooling, health benefits, food and most importantly the opportunity to know Jesus.

We picked a little girl named Alizeta from Burkina Faso when Lydia was about 2 years old. Lydia was so excited she tried to stick dollar bills into my laptop for Alizeta! She talks about Alizeta all the time. When Asa was born, we decided to support a little boy. His name is Rasmane. Rasmane is also from Burkina Faso–in fact, he is in the same Compassion center (Compassion works with pre-existing schools/churches) as Alizeta. We did this on purpose. Compassion gives sponsors the opportunity to meet their sponsored kid. We are committed to bringing Lydia and Asa to Burkina Faso to meet Alizeta and Rasmane one day. How cool would it be to meet them after supporting them for 10 years?! I cannot wait.

We try to write to Alizeta and Rasmane regularly. And we always send little gifts with our letters. Lydia loves to draw pictures and pick out stickers to mail to them. Here’s a picture of Rasmane and Alizeta with their families. Rasmane is clutching the jeans (isn’t he hilarious?!) and Alizeta is holding the doll (she IS the doll!).

Well, this week we found out Rasmane’s parents pulled him out of the program because of religious issues. I was so sad when I found out the news. I literally had tears in my eyes. But it also kinda encouraged me, too. Compassion—the church and/or school that Rasmane was a part of (and maybe even our letters) were pointing Rasmane to Jesus. If Compassion was only giving food and clothes, Rasmane’s parents wouldn’t have cared. I’ll miss Rasmane but it makes me feel good that we are really helping lead kids to Jesus—halfway across the world! We love Rasmane and will continue to pray for him—that this time involved with Compassion will make an eternal difference.

Lydia and I read several verses about LOVE (1 John 4:7-8, 12; Proverbs 17:17 or John 3:16) but ended up with this one as THE verse (I think it pretty much covers ALL the love verses out there…)

Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

This week all of our LOVE activities will be about showing LOVE to our Compassion kids. We’ve written letters, colored pictures and I’ve got a few more fun things prepared, too. I hope Lydia will understand that LOVE is about doing and giving having compassion for others.

My next few FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: LOVE posts will focus on great tips on writing letters, gifts you can send to your kids and how to make your sponsored child “real” to your own child.

What? You don’t sponsor a child? Well, please! DO SO NOW!

photo: amandabhslater

One of my favorite homemade desserts is a Hello Dolly Bar (aka Magic Bars, Seven Layer Bars). It’s a graham cracker crust layered with chocoalte chips, butterscotch chips, pecans, coconut and covered in sweetened condensed milk. I could eat an entire pan by myself. (I just made some for Asa’s teachers…so they’re on my mind.) Anyway, let’s pretend  I made an entire pan for you. I cut them up in perfect squares and laid them on a beautiful plate. One of my special brown and turquoise plates I bought for myself just because they are cute.

Then I brought them to your house. I set them on your kitchen table and said, “ENJOY! I made these just for you. They are delicious and my very favorite snack.” You picked one up, ate it and were of course, blown away by it’s yumminess. I am happy you are happy and decide to leave. But before I jump in my car I say, “Oh, by the way, could you bring my plate back when you’re done?”

What would you say?

“NO WAY! Are you kidding me?! How rude can you get? BRING YOUR PLATE BACK? I’m disgusted. I can’t believe you!”

Or would you simply say, “Of course! Thanks again for the Hello Dolly Bars!”

I’m pretty sure it would be the latter. After all I made the dessert for YOU. I brought them to your house. The least you can do is return the plate to me. In fact, you’d probably be happy to bring it back to me.

This is an object lesson we used to use in our children’s church. Kids are very in tune with “fairness”. They realize it’s only fair to return the plate to me. But what about God? He gives us EVERYTHING. He made everything. He designed it with us in mind. He made the world for our pleasure and our good. So, when he asks us to give back to Him, we should be MORE than excited to do so.

I have grown into my generosity as an adult. I love to give back to God. But I’d love this to be something my children lean and understand at an early age. They don’t get much money (obviously) but they do have tons of STUFF. I so want them to see how blessed they are and choose to give instead of want more.

I’ve seen selfishness bubble up into Lydia’s words and actions. She sees a new toy and wants it. She can’t understand why we’re giving a princess gift to a friend on her birthday and she’s not getting one. She finds money and assumes its for her. I know she’s only 3. I know selfishness is par for the course at this age. I just don’t want the selfishness to grow with her.

I posted last week about the banks we made for Lydia’s money. One is for tithe (10% of her “income”), one for save (10%) and the 3rd jar is for the rest of her money–to spend. Of course, she was excited to put some money in the jar for God. She was “eh” about the save jar. But the clinking quarters in that spend jar had her giddy.

Then she got an American Girl catalog in the mail. She said, “I want one.” She assumed we’d be buying her one. Or two. And the dog. And cat. And a few outfits to match. We explained that this was what her SAVE jar was for. So, she immediately emptied her entire SPEND jar into the SAVE jar. She is determined that American Girl will be hers. It doesn’t help much that we have an American Girl store in town and get to walk through it every time we go to the mall. (Seriously, you’ll doubt the recession if you walk into that store on a Saturday afternoon. Those eight year olds and their mamas will mow you down in there!)

But even after we talked about her money, about giving to God and saving some for her American Girl, she still doesn’t get the God factor. She finds a quarter and says, “I’m putting this in my save box!” I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this or trying to hard. But I can just see how we flirt with a lifestyle of selfishness. We are so blessed. We have a nice house. She has doting grandparents. She has more toys than she needs. I can buy her clothes and books anytime I want.

So my first thought was to teach her about money becuase it’s hard to “tithe” your clothes or your toys that Grandma gives, you know? Plus, she recently got $5 and I didn’t want her to blow it at the Dollar Store. I wanted her to recognize God in all her gifts. I even thought about an allowance so she can begin to see how money works and where it goes.

So, if I didn’t ramble too much, it’s YOUR TURN. What do you think? How do you show God’s great provision? How do you help your kids understand our blessed-ness? How do you promote thankfulness? Willingness to give? How do you teach your kids to be good with money? With stuff?