Christmas All Year Long

There are many reasons why it will be Christmas all year in the White house... one being: we always remember the reason for Christmas to begin with. That our perfect, powerful, all knowing and loving God came to earth-took on flesh- so that we could then have a savior in Jesus when he died on the cross for our sins, and 3 days later rose again.  Now, that is a ROCK SOLID sentence!  I am so humbled by God's love, grace, and mercy towards us.  It always make me take a deep breath when I think of it.

Another being that we get to enjoy the several gifts our family was blessed with this year.  Many of them that are the gifts that keep on giving, like the zoo passes from Grandmom and Grandad for the whole family.  YAY!!

Another is the amazing camera that my husband gave me.  A camera that I had been desiring, but never imagined would be mine. That story is kind of cool, but not the subject of today's post.

Let's not forget the gift I gave Tim, which is a TV he had been wanting for quite awhile for our room, but we knew we just weren't going to go into our account to buy something we didn't need.  This is another cool story, but again, not the subject of the post.  I do want to say that God is in the business of loving on His children.  We saw evidence of that this Christmas.  We didn't have to use a single penny from our own checking or savings account, and this was definitely one of our most giftastic Christmas'.  We are abundantly blessed.  It is apparent that God is in the details and knows the desires of our hearts and wants to not just provide and bless us with what we need, but also, sometimes, with what we want.  The key is that we see that it was His favor and His doing that it happened, and that we bring Him glory through it.

The reason I want to blog about today, that keeps Christmas going all year long is one of our family traditions.   I have blogged about it before... the Christmas card prayer over dinner.  We put all the Christmas cards we receive in a basket, and randomly choose a card before dinner, so we can pray over the family that sent it.  We have been doing it for a few years, and I really enjoy it.  This year, I have been thinking a lot about my word of the year for 2012, another past blog post.  2011 was 'hope-filled'.  It was the perfect year for that.  And, since I have been implementing it in my life all year, it is now engraved on my heart and something that I am not going to stop come 2012!  I will press on!  For 2012, the word I was just sharing with my mother in law the other day, I believe is 'prayer'.  God wants me to be prayer filled!  I have already started quite a list of people that I am praying for daily and I even have set alarms on my phone to remind me (Thanks for the idea, Jackie.).  So, this year, I am adding a little twist to the Christmas card prayer over dinner idea.

This year, if your Christmas card made it into our home, onto our wall, and now into our basket, we will be praying for you ALL WEEK!  Not, just over dinner a few times a year, but ALL WEEK!!  What's that?  You didn't send out Christmas cards this year?  You forgot us?  You never got around to it?  Well, just comment on here that you want to be added to our basket, and I will add your family to the basket.  :0)

Here is the plan:
Each Monday, as we start our week of school, we will take a card out of the basket, and that will be our family for the week.  We will pray for this family ALL WEEK!  During our school devotions, family devotions, quiet times, dinner, etc.  I also plan to email or call the family that was chosen, so we can see if they have any specific requests for us that week.  I am so excited!  My kids are going to LOVE this!

I think we have enough cards for each week of the year, so there might be a few 'doubled-up' weeks.  Please, don't hesitate to ask to be added to our basket.  It truly is an honor for our family to pray for you.

Since we are on the subject of prayer, will you pray for me?  That I make my prayer filled year, one that is pleasing to the Lord and really honors Him all year long.

May my prayer be set before you like incense; 

may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2