15 Christmas Picture Books to Celebrate the Season

2 Dec


Memories shared around favored Christmas books is one of our most beloved ways to celebrate the season. There are many things to see and do at Christmastime that involve activities outside the home, but books provide the perfect stay at home shared time which can take you back in time or to another location entirely. Books allow us to walk in other people’s shoes and experience life as they have. Be it the orphaned child, the homeless family, the shepherd boy, or an elderly woman seeking to catch a glimpse of Christmas magic, you and your family can enter their world and learn empathy and lessons to guide your own steps. Check a few of these out at your local library, favorite thrifted bookstore, or purchase them online at the links below and give them a try.

Her spirits, which had been high, fell a little as a sense of time touched her. How slowly it crawled and yet how fast it flew. She had been young and now she was old and the years between had vanished as though they had never been. ~Elizabeth Goudge, I Saw Three Ships





Stay tuned for our favorite Christmas chapter books later this week. But for now, here is one to get you started!


Merry Reading,

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A Birth Remembered

8 Feb

 

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 As we reflect on the five years lived with our Emily, we are overwhelmed with blessings. Emily, you have grown into a beautiful little girl full of love for others, a nurturing spirit, thoughtful ways, and an increasing vocabulary! Daddy and I pray for you a year full of growth in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. We pray this year or one soon after will usher in rebirth for you as you profess to know Jesus through repentance and salvation.

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*Last two photos taken by Corey Conroy Photography.

Last night Emily created a booklet from her scraps and marker scribbles. As she presented the book to me she asked, “Mommy will you remember me forever?” ” Yes, I will always remember you. Emily, if my mind stops working and I don’t remember you, yes, even then my heart and spirit will forever know you. When we meet again in heaven I will say, ‘There is my Love!'”

A mother’s heart will never forget that which the mind may fail to remember.

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Dearest Emily, our firstborn and only daughter, Happy 5th Birthday! You are dearly loved.

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Making Memories Set Apart

18 Jun

Please welcome our friend and Pastor of Family Ministries, Dr. Aaron Walp, today at This Temporary Home.  I know his teaching will encourage you to love God with all your mind. Thank you Dr. Walp for being our guest.

 

Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~Oscar Wilde

I have heard it said that you are a compilation of your collective memories. That is, due to your unique life experience you are who you are. For me, I never enter an ocean, lake, or bathtub without considering the remote possibility that Jaws may be in there waiting on me. The smell of hay triggers thoughts of hard work and great friends, as we spent weeks filling two barns with hay for the oncoming winter. The colors of fall propel my mind to moments of anticipation for the upcoming hunting season. And several large novels could not contain the memories of my life.

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It is said, that no culture is more consumed with memories than the Jewish people. For example, they have a tradition of reciting specific scripture verses called the Shema. It is three texts from two books of the Torah. The first section is from the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and is a command to love God and teach this love to one’s children. The other passages, Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41 address the need to obey God’s commands and remember them daily. The faithful recite these passages once in the morning and once at night, and if they have children, they will involve them in the prayer.

In essence, the chosen nation is both remembering as well as making memories for themselves and their children. The idea is that while experiencing times of need, abundance (yes, especially in good times), anger, and temptation, the child’s memories of what God has said will be what they use to make their decision on how to respond. If all one has to recall is humanistic answers, they will likely fail the test set before them, the daily test of life.

God desires His creation to love Him in return for the love He has shown and shows us. He has created a world with such precision that modern science cannot even begin to grasp its complexity. He has built in incomprehensible beauty, intellectual depth, and inconceivable astrological features that boggle and confound the greatest of minds. He is aware of life’s difficulties, unfathomable heartache, miserable moments, and the decisive pull of our sinful heart to run from Him. And it is because of this that He lovingly asks us to make memories that are set apart from this dead world filled with difficult days. He wants His children to be able to focus on things which only exist in the Savior, Jesus Christ. That is, things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Nothing in this world can fulfill this incessant desire for completeness but the word of God. And it is one’s memory of His word through reading, studying, and memorizing it daily that one reaches this pinnacle.

For more information about Aaron Walp, D. Min., please check out his blog at http://walpapologeticrants.blogspot.com/ or find him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/

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Like Blue Hydrangeas

8 Apr

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.  Matthew 28:6

My Easter memories consist of new Sunday dresses sewn by my mother, full Easter baskets, and beautiful blue hydrangeas.

 

Every Easter Sunday we would gather at Mama’s to celebrate our Risen Savior. Just outside her carport to the right was the most beautiful blue hydrangea bush brimming with blossoms. All the little boy and girl cousins would quickly run by them in a game of chase or hide-and-seek. Yet, last night as I paused to give thanks for the white hydrangeas on my dining room table what filled my mind were the beautiful blue flowers  of my childhood Easters of many years ago. The hydrangeas are why I choose the colorful mix from the supermarket initially.

My own mother, as she would remember the women traveling early to anoint the Savior, would spend many hours sewing my sister and I beautiful smocked Easter dresses. Her loving stitches graced many smocked dresses that my little girl wears as she grows and as my sweet newborn niece, Anna Bell, will wear in like fashion.

What Easter memories are we sowing into our children and heritage? When they are grown and making a new home of their own, what will they remember of their childhood Easter’s?

Last night, I tacked the sides of my daughters beautifully smocked pink Easter dress my mom purchased for Emily. As I feebly attempted to stitch, I marveled at my mothers gift of sewing and creating those beautiful dresses each year. I wondered how a mother learns to accomplish all that her children need. Did my mother’s and father’s efforts feel as novel to them as they do to me?

This year, on my table are white hydrangeas, but in my heart are memories of blue.

 

Praise Jesus our Savior is risen! May we be like beautiful blue hydrangeas and testify of the goodness of our Creator and Christ our savior this day and always.

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To Scoop Them Up

16 Mar

The days flee and the nights escape us. Little ones, while tucked in, grow and develop when our eyes are closed and our thoughts rest.

Each day we see them and know they are growing. Each night we check on them one more time, finding them in their most precious, peaceful positions. Why is it that children are most peaceful when sleeping? Why do we want to kiss them until they wake up?

Little-lisped “s’s”, normal for their developmental age flow out of, “Yeth it ith.” “I thee it.” We melt and smile.

Pages turn unfolding stories as in turn we are writing our own.

Even unspoken, blank portions of our story can become a writing down. A working in and out of the Holy Spirit. As all things can if we seek Him.

These memories and moments I want to scoop up. All the hurts and chaos I want to let flow on like water off a duck’s back.

To have eyes that see; ears that hear; understanding. These are gifts from God. In this temporary home may we seek after such as we choose to pursue Jesus. Let us scoop up the memories and live eyes on the eternal.

Two memories we scooped this week:

Joshua caressed my hair on the way out the door Wednesday night and said, “Like your hair,” as he tilted his adorable two-year-old head to the left and lifted his shoulder. Prince charming?

Emily asked, “Can some people be blind and not hear?” I told her of Helen Keller, one of my favorite people to read about in grammar and high school. I thought we had a book at home about her.  Emily asks, “Is it a children’s book or one of your books mommy? I don’t think I could sit for one of your books.” The wisdom!

Linking my favorites with Rachel as she celebrates one year of Friday Favorite Things:

friday favorite things | finding joy

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My First Valentine

14 Feb

It is not a dozen red roses, heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates, nor balloons and pink and red cards that I remember as my first Valentine. Rather, a simple heart shaped stamp with an adorable dalmatian puppy affixed on top.

My daddy gave me this precious Valentine many years ago. Perhaps my mother should be credited with this purchase instead, but somehow I remember this being one of the gifts that my daddy purchased for his girls himself.

In the fall, Ron and I were reading Charolette’s Web to Emily and what do I find in the back of the book? My early elementary school signature beside my very favorite stamp from my first memorable valentine.

Phases and stages in the home come and go, but memories are forever stamped on our hearts.

Such a simple and sweet treasure.

I love you mom and dad and thank you for all the love you have given me.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my precious husband, children, and family… and of course, you readers too!

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1 John 3:11

What do you remember as your first Valentine?

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