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Share the Miracle Share the reason for the season with Barbour's Christmas at Home card line and delight others with a heartfelt inspirational message and charming design.

175 Easy-to-Do Crafts: Christmas From reindeer, snowmen, angels, and Santas to ornaments, cards, puppets, and creches everything you need to create a wonderful holiday celebration can be found in this fun filled craft book. Kids and grown ups will have hours of enjoyment making Egg Carton Carolers, Patchwork Ornaments, Holiday Postcards, and many other festive decorations, games, and gifts. Easy to follow directions and full color photographs ensure success for young craft makers. Crafts offered as creative uses for recyclables. For all ages.

A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others By Karen Ehman When it comes to hospitality, it doesn't matter what size your house is, how it's decorated, whether or not it's spotless, or what you cook or don't cook. The secret to making guests feel comfortable is more about the condition of your heart than the condition of your home. Ehman gives you valuable tips on how to decorate well within a budget, make the most of your space, be prepared for unexpected company and create delicious, simple dishes your guests will enjoy.

Praise God! Jesus is Born!: Easy Dramas, Recitations, and Speeches for Children By Leedell Stickler & Judy Jolly A diverse and easily produced collection of children's worship performances for the Advent / Christmas season Easy for Children. Most of the spoken lines in these dramas are very simple. Any child from age 3 to 12 can feel included in worship participation. Any adult without prior experience can easily direct these dramas. Each performance is structured simply enough to require little rehearsal.

Christmas December 2007

Christmas' Challenges

Celebrate Christmas in style.

Beautiful trees, lights, presents, the gift of time with families and friends. Wonderful food and dessert spread all around the decorated table. Some people are just asking for a buttered bun and fresh fruit.

While some sleep with sugar plums dancing in their heads. Many are wishing for a warm and safe place to lay their heads.

Ladies in a women's shelter are in tears - thankful, when strangers donate a warm pair of socks and a thin pair of mitts for their Christmas gifts.

Some people receive hugs and kisses from people they care about most. Some get a door slammed in their face.

Some kids aren't thankful for their warm beds, pillows, teddy bears and TV while.many precious children ask if anyone cares about them.

Some spend thousands to make their homes look grand, did they notice the homeless man walking past their house, looking in, no coat to wear.

A sad teenage girl, no visitors, her Christmas tree  on the end of a crane outside her hospital window, spending Christmas with the songs on the radio.

Some don't share the birth of Jesus, the person in whom Christmas is truly about. If this isn't your style, spread a little extra kindness, this will work too.

Bring back some old tradition, spread love and cheer.

Say Merry Christmas sir, ma'am or miss as you are walk down the snowy streets.

Hand Christmas cards to strangers; you don't have to have a reason.

Invite a person from down the street for coffee, a bun and hot soup.

Take two dollars for every gift you buy, then buy an extra gift for a stranger.

Santa Anonymous boxes will soon be out; they need sorters and delivers too.

Hang a gift on a stranger's door in the middle of the night, you might enjoy it.

Let do something new, extra special for the holiday season.

© 2007 Charlene Dyer
Charlene is a single mother of three who lives in the inner city of a major city and writes from a personal knowledge of the harshness this season can bring to many lives.. She provided this free-flow poem as a favour upon my request and if you'd like to contact her, please contact Katherine Walden
Contact for permission to reprint or use in any format.

A Home Divided - A Lesson In Forgiveness

"Your dad wants a divorce, and I'm giving it to him"

These were the words that sent my picture perfect world crashing down around me.

My body felt numb. Was this just a dream? My mother's words rang in my ears over and over again, but they just didn‘t make any sense. Dazed and silent, my only thought was "why?" Why in the world was this happening to my family? Filled with anger, I hung up the phone and I cried.

My parents divorced after 35 years of marriage. They said they no longer loved each other and only stayed together for "the kids". I was dismayed and confused as I had never heard a ill-tempered word between the two of them. Even as an adult I was devastated when my parents divorced.

Nothing tested me more in my adult life than when my parents split up. I was 32 years old at the time. I had a great job , close friends, a loving husband, two beautiful children—all of the things that I thought made me rooted. Yet when my parents announced they were splitting up, I felt as if the world had collapsed in on me.

My life suddenly seemed a series of "lasts"—a final Christmas, a bitter end to Thanksgiving family get-togethers. I'd never again find my parents standing side by side on the porch, waving as I bring the boys to visit Grandma and Papa. Looking back, it seemed as if Mom and Dad had been faking it—which cheapened all my childhood memories.

The divorce of my parents meant the death of a way of life. I did a lot of grieving just as I would any other death. I grieved for the traditions that will never happen again -  I grieved for our home, because though I was married and living in my own home, I had the knowledge that I could go home, if I ever needed to. Now I have lost that security, because home isn't there anymore, at least not as I knew it. The truth was their divorce disrupted my present, and rewrote my past.

I knew that forgiving my parents was key to my healing and becoming "whole" again. The problem was, I struggled with forgiveness a great deal. It was an extremely difficult concept for me. I'm generally a very closed and distant person. And when someone I care about hurts me, I close myself off even further towards them. My inability to forgive kept me stuck in a pattern of negativity and resentment towards both parents.

One cold December night when I was having trouble getting to sleep, I picked up my Bible and read in Matthew, "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." I knelt by my bed and asked God for His grace to help me to forgive. I questioned if I forgave my father would my mother feel I wasn't being loyal to her? Would I be condoning their sin if I had a friendly relationship with them? The burden became too heavy for me to bear any longer. I cried to God "Help me please!". Then, I felt the warmth of the Holy Spirit. I wept uncontrollably. I knew I could not forgive in my own strength. God assured me that He would walk with me each step of the way. He made me an unconditional promise and there was absolutely nothing that could prevent its fulfillment.

Since that moment, I have been able to forgive my parents and realize that perhaps they did the best they could. My past is where it belongs; in the past. My parents love me. I really know that. I have now grieved the loss of what could have been, and forgiven them for not being perfect parents. Somehow grace has worked its miracle and I’ve been able to let go. It's freed me of many of the burdens of my past Gone are my mental prisons created by harboring hard feelings towards my parents. Forgiving my parents freed me from their actions against me, as well as their actions against each other.

One year after learning of the divorce, the pain hasn't completely disappeared. Once in awhile a childhood memory will pop into my head. I’ll remember, and long for, the way things once were. But just as Jesus forgave those who hurt Him, I am also called to forgive those who hurt me.

Because in any case forgiveness can be a challenge, I pray and ask God for strength. I ask Him to change my heart to be graceful toward others, just as He is graceful toward me. Daily as I choose to forgive and not become bitter, negative feelings flow away and peace floods my soul.

Just as I had a choice in how I reacted to my parent's divorce, I have a choice in how I will handle my marriage and my walk with God. When I go to prayer I ask God to heal families who are struggling to hold on, and to keep families strong who are already grounded in Him. I ask Him to help me love, forgive, and obey Him in all circumstances especially concerning my own family. I won't allow my parent's divorce to destroy my marriage or to destroy me. Rather, I will allow it to change me into a person who bears good fruit so in the end I will have joy and God will be g