Gentle Giants

We had just gathered the children tonight to have a quick Family Home Evening. All of us have some form of sickness going on or recovering from so I knew it would need to be quick. I thought maybe a quick Christmas story about the birth of the Savior. We sang a Christmas hymn and I started to get ready to read the story. C was struggling to get quiet because he wanted to share something he had made at school. I thought for sure, my story would be much more meaningful and I tried to put him off. He continued to be impatient so my husband said "Let's just let him share first." It was interesting because there was this piece of paper that said "The True Meaning of Christmas" by C. Brown with a scan code on it for a smart phone. We scanned it and the next thing we hear is C's voice. He talked about how the true meaning of Christmas was loving our family and friends and treating them well. Then he says " I wrote a poem about it and then starts singing the primary song I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. He sings the chorus part: Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought, For these are the things Jesus taught. Hilarious that he took credit for writing the primary song. I must say it brought a little tear to my eye that he sat there and sang that song about Jesus to his teacher. When he thought about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, he didn't even mention Santa. Hmm..maybe we are doing something right. Either way, awesome C...just awesome. Each week C is supposed to share a book that he has read. Make a small puppet about the main characters and use it to retell the story in front of the class. We have been reading a lot of Christmas books at home so he chose The Three Trees to share. He made little puppet trees and told his class about how much each tree wants to be something special. He told me that when he told the kids that the first tree got to hold the baby Jesus, all his friends got so excited. C's best friend is not a member of our church. He told his mom that he wanted to go to church with C so he could see C and get closer to Jesus. I think it's true. Children help us get closer to Jesus if we let them. How often one of my small children will grab my face with their little hands just so I will pay attention to them. In the wake of the horrible tragedy in Connecticut, I find myself just staring at my kids, listening to them, cuddling them more, wanting them close, praying for those families who won't get to hold their little ones. Our hearts and prayers are with you.