Get ready for Christmas in October!

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/occ The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Go here to see a short video on what it's all about:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1534611823/bclid1137749274/bctid1138334470

Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. Since 1993, more than 61 million shoe boxes have been packed, shipped, and delivered across the globe. People of all ages can be involved in this simple, hands-on missions project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ.National Collection Week is November 17-24, 2008.

The Lejla Allison Story: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1534611823/bclid1137749274/bctid1737010022

We have packed shoeboxes for the past three years at least. One for each of our three boys. They help me organize it at our church, wrap boxes, pack donated items in donated shoeboxes, load up the car with boxes to take to the delivery site, and most of all they pray for the children that receive these boxes.

How do you pack a shoebox anyway? http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/

The Freedom of Life

Mother and Child by Mary Cassatt

"It is a universal rule that the more excited or naughty the children are, the more quiet and clear the mother should be. A mother who realizes this for the first time, and works with herself until she is free from all excited and strained resistance, discovers that it is through her care for her children that she herself has learned how to live. Blessed are the children who have such a mother, and blessed is the mother of those children!

It is resistance -- resistance to the naughtiness or disobedience in the child that not only hurts and tires the mother, but interferes with the best growth of the child.

"What!" a mother may say, "should I want my child to be naughty? What a dreadful thing!"

No, we should not want our children to be naughty, but we should be willing that they should be. We should drop resistance to their naughtiness, for that will give us clear, quiet minds to help them out of their troubles.

All vehemence is weak; quiet, clear decision is strong; and the child not only feels the strength of the quiet, decisive action, but he feels the help from his mother's quiet atmosphere which comes with it. If all parents realized fully that the work they do for their children should be done in themselves first, there would soon be a new and wonderful influence perceptible all about us."



Annie Payson Call 1904 (pages 208 & 209)





I have not read the whole book yet, but will here:
http://books.google.com/books?ct=result&id=VbURAAAAYAAJ&dq=the+freedom+of+life&ots=XKp6Tr8dZU&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&q=it+is+a+universal+rule+that+the+more+excited+or+nauty

James 3

James 3

The Tongue Is a Fire

1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.
2 For we all stumble in many ways If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
3 Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.
5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

Wisdom from Above

13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
18And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Now watch this video from Desiring God: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1441_short_film_from_dg/
Then read James 3 again.