Christmas here we come!

Proverbs 30:8-9

Give me neither riches nor poverty; feed me with the food that is my portion, that i may not be full and deny You and say "who is the Lord?"Or that I may not be in want and steal and profane the name of my God".  

This is the key verse to my bible study for the week- i love that God brought us to this point on the week before Christmas.  I have done well until this last week with wanting to find the perfect gift and thinking that money can actually buy that gift.  The last week I got in a panic as i was not as far on my Christmas shopping as i thought I was- it was a very difficult time as i cannot take all 5 kids to shop- some have been sick and Darcy has been working long hours- at this point i had to allow God to show me that the ultimate gift has already been given- and that should be my focus- I did some reevaluating and realized I needed my gift giving to reflect that I have already received the perfect gift and all else would be the overflow- I also wanted to impart to my children that the perfect gift cannot be found under the tree- no matter how much money mom and dad are to spend.  It was a neat experience as we celebrated with the kids on Sunday- the boys who are Star Wars crazy bought each other light sabers- they had done a huge amount of chores over the past month and saved all the money to buy the gifts.  It boiled down to Walt opening his gift and thanking Samuel and then slyly asking what other ones they had- after putting batteries in the light saber we realized it was broken- we told Walt we would take it back and get a new one- with that he wanted to see if while we were taking it back could we get a new one- upon hearing that Samuel decided he also wanted a different one (take note Amelia is contently planning polly pocket in the corner)  Walt burst into tears that Samuel would want to take his back- he had done so many chores to buy it- we told Samuel that he would not get another- he plainly said "but this is not the one I want"  Walt cried all the harder- again Samuel said "I am sorry Walt but I do not want this one"  got to love his honesty and that the tears did not affect the state of his heart- we then had a wonderful teaching moment that neither was content they just went about it in different ways- Walt asked what else was available and then kept talking about all the things he could have gotten-  Samuel flat out stated that he wanted something else- in the end both were crying that their gift was not accepted- we talked about how it hurts to reject a gift freely given- how hard it is when you work so hard for something and it is not appreciated- in the end both hugged and decided that they had received a very special gift-   I am hoping in the middle of all the craziness as we travel to both grandparents in the next week - that the remember the lessons learned about giving and receiving gifts.  It is amazing to watch your children and see the attitudes that we hide in our heart played out in front of us- it has also been a blessing as we are going through the book "Lord change my attitude before it's too late" in my women's study to realize that it is the attitude of the heart that the Lord looks at- all the thank yous do not impress the Lord if in your heart you are not thankful-  We head into the wonderful season of our savior's birth with runny noses, sore throats and all over tired- I am determined that this will not overshadow the wonderful meaning of the season.  It has been the most amazing blessing (along with a lot of hard work, and long nights) to be homeschooling at this time of year- we have had so many times to speak with our children about our savior and remove all the things that the world ties with Christmas.  My ideas of a perfect holiday have been replaced with long days, sick kids, a tree that is losing all it's needles- but somehow joy has prevailed!!!!!