Loving Others

Our Pastor encouraged us to pray 3 prayers in the year 2013 to help make it our most spiritually impacted year yet. I wrote the prayers down, hung them on the bathroom mirror, and have done my best to pray them every morning and every night. The 3 prayers are:

• "Jesus, YOUR plans, not mine." ~ Love God.
• "Lord, make space in my life to include others." ~ Love People
• "Father, help me go and be a blessing." ~ Influence the World

Praying these prayers every morning has changed my attitude and perspective of how I start and go through my day. They take my focus off myself and put it on God and others. I am by no means perfect, and I mean, by NO means...but I strive to start each day with meaning these prayers from the bottom of my heart and living them out in faith. God has already blessed our lives this year more than we could have imagined.

Every year, our church participates in "Operation Christmas Child." (Love People and Influence the World) Other churches we have attended have done the same, so this was nothing new for us! Basically, you get a pre-made shoebox from the church, choose to fill it for a boy or girl, and choose between the ages of 2-4, 5-9, 10-14. We chose to take 2 boxes and fill it with items for a boy and a girl ages 2-4. We went to Target and went to town! We picked out an outfit, some necessities like socks, hats and gloves, and a few toys for the boy and the girl. Target has some ADORABLE kiddo clothes, p.s. So much fun! We spent about an hour picking everything out. I love this every year!

After you assemble the box and pack it, you place the label on it and wrap a rubber band around it (not pretty, but our was busting open!!). The instructions also ask you to place a $7 donation inside the box or donate online so that you can track your box. We donate online so that we can see where our boxes end up! Loving this idea even more! Thanks to our church and Operation Christmas Child, a boy and a girl somewhere in the world might have a happier Christmas. Love God, Love People, and Influence the World.