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3rd Day of Christmas Giveaways with Summer Saldana

12 Days of Christmas at KarenEhman.com

Welcome to the 3rd Day of Christmas Giveaways!!!

Summer is giving away a Gratitude Journal and will be sharing how she is keeping it intentional this Christmas season. Summer is one of those women who certainly isn’t trying to hide anything — except maybe what is behind her beloved bangs.

Summer Saldana She is refreshingly open about her mommy meltdowns (she has 2 children, but one is strong willed, so it’s more like 4), her faith, and her obsession with thrift store shopping and makeup/skincare hauls.But whether it’s through writing, speaking, or sharing her health, beauty and fashion tips on YouTube, Summer’s greatest passion & hope is that through these bonds of beauty, deeper connections and friendships are created! Connect with Summer Saldana on her Blog or on You Tube.

To join in on the fun and be entered to win this prize, simply leave a comment on the post answering the question of the day. ALSO—one grand prize will be given to one person who comments on all 12 days.

The Grand Prize is a $50 gift certificate to Proverbs 31 Ministries store and a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com!!!

Now, here is Summer to offer you today’s post…

Season of Intentionality

My Favorite Christmas Tradition…has become more about a change within our hearts, than it has been about a change in our activities.

Recently my pastor preached through the beginning of John 12, specifically on the moment between Jesus & Mary, when she took a pound of expensive ointment, and used every last drop to wash the feet of Jesus with her own hair. All throughout the message, he stressed to us that it wasn’t the gift, or the cost or even her welfare that was the point, rather it was her focus…her aim…her intention… And Mary’s was simply to worship and serve the Lord she loved.

He ended the message with the reminder that in all things our focus, our goal, our aim…must be one of worship, intentional worship with all of our heart, mind and strength.

Of course this biblical truth applies to our lives in all times and all seasons, but it was especially meaningful to me during this Christmas season as well.

One Christmas, long ago (okay, only a few years, but still…), we missed the meaning…we missed the purpose. We got caught up in the plans and the bustle and the shopping and the spending and the need, want, must buy nows!!! And we realized one Christmas morning, when we had proudly accomplished giving our children what we believed was, “THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!”….that maybe more was not necessarily better. Our children were unsatisfied and left with a feeling of want, even when there were piles and piles of gifts and wrapping paper surrounding them.

We knew in that moment that we needed to refocus the Season on what really matters.

The first change we implemented was to adopt a new tradition. Rather than spending on an abundance of gifts, we purchased only four per child…
“Something you want,
something you need,
something to wear,
and something to read.”

Each year they get one affordable gift per category, nothing more, and never have I seen my babies more satisfied and content.

With this change and many others, Christmas has become to our family not a season of getting, but a season of intentionality.

It’s a sweet precious time to slow down, take notice of those around us, serve, give, love and spend time with the ones God has blessed our lives with. We try not to focus so much on our needs or wants, but instead remember that we get a whole month specifically dedicated to reminding us of the Ultimate One we worship and serve.

And so, I would love to encourage you all to take what often becomes a season of need, greed and busy, and instead start a new tradition of making it a season of intentionality and worship.

Whatever you do, whatever you give, whatever you say, whatever you fill your time with….remember the aim, the goal, the purpose….is worship to our King.

“The aim of our welfare should be worship, not welfare.”
-Pastor Matt Smith

What new traditions can you guys start this season or even in your daily life to bring about more of a heart of worship in your own family? Share your ideas below! A winner will be selected from the comments.

Gratitude Journal Giveaway Image

Today’s Giveaway:

As a way to cultivate a heart of thankfulness, intentionality and worship, Summer will be generously giving away this beautiful Gratitude Journal by Catherine Price.

***All the winners will be announced Tuesday, December 22.***

Giveaway at KarenEhman.com 12 Days of Christmas

 

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189 Comments

  1. My husband and I are a military family. Since we are a new family of two (2nd Christmas together) we are trying to do more non-traditional type things. This year we will host a few single soldiers to enjoy seafood dinner and a birthday cake for Jesus. The cake flavor this year has been requested to be carrot!

  2. Each night before the kids go to bed we add another ornament to the Jesse Tree my mom made for us when I was a child.

  3. I always have my kids get an ornament off the angel tree and we purchase gifts for other children less fortunate that we are. The kids always ask why these children don’t have toys. It is a great opportunity the explain how much God has blessed us and how need to share out blessings with others being a servant of God.

  4. I want to be a better wife,mother, daughter and friend.Be a blessing to them.And grow in the lord more this year.

  5. I want to spend more time reflecting on the blessings God has given me. Last year my mom gave me a blessing jar to fill but I never wrote one thing down. I want to fill that jar up in 2016!!!

  6. This year we decided to have a family weekend….no friends staying over, no hanging out at friend’s houses all weekend. We had one evening where it was just us. We went, as a family, to see The Christmas Carol at the local high school. We drove around looking at Christmas lights and we ended the evening with ice cream. Our boys are 15, 14 and 12 and it was a wonderful evening.

  7. Music…..I’m not a musician but I so love and appreciate the messages i learn through music. I almost always have Christian music playing. It’s a reminder for me to worship

  8. I would like to make the Christmas holiday more about being together and less about presents. Maybe play games instead of focusing on gifts.

  9. We did start a new tradition…..we had a 10 box birthday party. My birthday is in November around the time shoebox’s for Samaritan’s Purse are due so I asked every one to bring an item in quantity to add to each box, instead of a gift for me. We filled 15!!! Now my 5 year old and I follow the FB page and see pictures of children receiving boxes. I am hoping to teach him earlier (I have 2 grown girls) that not everyone has the same as us and teach him what fun it is to send Jesus to others, whether we know them or not. He struggled putting some of they toys in at the moment, so we keep talking about it. My hope is to keep doing it as a group each year!

  10. This year I am spending an afternoon with my nieces doing crafts, taking them to lunch, watching movies, and reading books. I try all year to be an example of a Godly woman to them (hard living 4 hours away from them). I hope to incorporate into our afternoon what Christmas is really about, and how it’s not about getting things. I hope that the craft that we make can be given away to my mom (grandma) or their mom’s or someone else special to give the kids a sense of giving something of meaning to their mom or grandma.

  11. I heard a great idea about doing Elf on the Shelf but making it about kindness. The Elf might be holding a gift card or a greeting card. It’s then the children’s job to pray about who they should give that item too. She said you could also have it holding up a name to pray for someone. I think that sounds like a great tradition to try.

  12. This year we are participating in putting together small goodie bags for the local police & fireman (40 in our small town) that will be delivered Christmas Eve. Definitely something we want to continue in years to come. We also put together bags to pass out to homeless people we may pass on the street. It’s a gallon-sized ziplock with water, snacks, personal hygiene products, socks, hand-warmers, etc. That idea came from a Jonah Bible study I took several years ago. (Sorry, I’m a day late with my comment. Gone all day yesterday so had no time to get on the computer. I’m one of the few people that doesn’t have a smart phone, so internet time is limited to home time.)

  13. We did operation Christmas Child for the first time this year, where we got to choose items for a child in need. It was a really good way to teach our boys to be grateful for what we have because there are so many others who are much less fortunate.

  14. We selected a child’s name with her age and needs from an angel tree and went shopping to buy the items on the list.

  15. This year I’m giving both my sons & their wives as well as my husband & myself a gratitude or blessings jar. Each day they will write on a strip of paper something they are thankful for or a blessing received. Next Christmas we will share a few of them with each other.

  16. I have a 3 yr old grandson who needs to know more about Jesus and the reason for the season, than Santa and presents. Wecare intentionally teaching him by reading stories, the Gospel and talking about God’s and Jesus love for us.

  17. I love the way you changed the gift giving at Christmas! I grew up in a home with little money and it always amazed me at how my Mama could come up with Christmas gifts! She had a small budget and looked for markdowns throughout the year. It taught me the value of caring for each other and not in the price of the gift. At this stage in my life, we try to spend time with family and not deal with gift giving but the gift of relationship.

  18. Sorry I missed posting this yesterday (i’m posting this on Sunday) . It was an overwhelming day for me and I am recovering from a bug I had for the past week. One of the things I am trying to do this year is having all the wrapping done before Christmas Eve so that precious time with family is center, with focus on the true meaning and gift of Christmas. My prayers is that my family will all come to the saving knowledge of Jesus and that this Christmas will be that of new births into the saving grace of Christ.

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