How are attitudes with your children - like muck and mud?

I talked with a mom yesterday who was having a tough time with her teens, their fighting, hitting and just plain being nasty to each other. After listening for a while, I prayed with her and hung up the phone.

Today I read an interesting family story about a mom who was tired of her children fighting and being nasty to each other so she took a break and went to the barn to shovel muck and mud. While working out there, she prayed and asked the Lord to show her what she could do about the problems with her teens. She ran across an old box of photos and found a cute one with her kids when they were younger, happy and smiling. She wrapped the photo in a ziploc bag, buried it in a bucket of muck and took it to the house.

She called her kids to come and watch something. As she dug through the muck she talked about God's love for us, how He loves to forgive us and that we often need to forgive each other because our sin is like that muck in God's eyes. When she uncovered the photo, her children loved seeing it, reminded them of happier days but the message was not lost about what they needed to do. They all realized that they needed to ask each other for forgiveness as well as forgive the other person. It cleared the home atmosphere that day.

Sometimes we have days like that when we are dealing with muck and mud in our lives. God's reminder to us is that our muck and mud, also called sin, can easily be taken care of when we ask God for forgiveness as well as forgive those people that need to be forgiven. It clears the air as well as send of breath of healing to us.

This story is in the January issue of "Family Currents" and will go home this Sunday (12/19) in the 9:15 elementary Sunday School classes because there is no Sunday School next week (12/26). So many people are out of town and so few subs are available that Pastor Steve has allowed us to cancel Sunday School the travelling weekend of Christmas.

The 11:00 elementary Sunday School classes also have a monthly newsletter that goes home and will go home this Sunday. They also have a weekly paper that goes home and gives the Sunday School lesson for next week. We are asking parents to read the scriptures with their children before Sunday to give children's a heads' up on what the lesson will be. The Rio "Family Currents" also has a place on the front page where we put the lessons for the month with the scriptures. We feel that it can be a valuable family time if parents read these scriptures with their children each week. Preschoolers also have papers that go home with them that tell about the lesson for that day.

"A Cup of Christmas Tea"

I have just finished my annual reading of "A Christmas Cup of Tea".  I don't remember when I bought the book but the copyright is in 1982.  I  know I've had it many years, lost it a few years, then found it again.   It's a very short, simple book, but has a profound message.  A young man got all his Christmas done - the decorations, the gifts wrapped and under the tree, felt very smug but something was bothering him inside.  He remembered his great aunt's Christmas card and her note that she'd love to have him come for a cup of Christmas tea.  He really didn't want to go but finally gave in and went to see her.  It turned out to be one of his soul's important moments.

I often think of the message of that book, what Christmas is all about, not just the most important thing being to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but the traditions of other things we celebrate and how people are at the heart of it all.  Without the relationships to our family and friends around us, the gifts and decorations are all just hollow things that mean nothing.

Now that Christmas is almost here this year, and I'm closer to his great aunt's age, maybe I'll start a new tradition of inviting my kids and grandkids for a cup of Christmas tea.  It's a great time for chatting and sharing what's happening in our lives.