Tuesday- Christmas Card Prayers

There are so many pinterest ideas on how to display Christmas cards. How about this one:

Or this one:

Or this one!

This year, however, I just stuck them up all over my pantry door. Maybe next year I will actually do something cute :) Then it got full (especially because I could only hang them so far down to keep them away from little hands). So, I then took the rest of them and put them all over our back door.

But, when the Christmas season is over and the decorating needs to be taken down, there is always a question as to what to do with the cards. Keep them? Scrapbook them (haha......I no longer scrapbook). Throw them away? Leave them up? Put them on your frig?

Here is one suggestion that we have grown to LOVE.

Every night for dinner, I allow Ellie to choose one card and Tyler to choose one. Then, during dinner we read the card together and/or the letter, talk about the people and "get to know them." Some people are some dear friends from college. Some are from our old church. Some are friends with Daddy. Some are friends with Ellie. Some are family. Some people are from our town in the SW. Others are from Dayton. Lots are from all over the US as we have LOTS of military friends! This year we got cards from: Haiti, Alabama, New Mexico, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Utah, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, and Florida (off the top of my head :) We talk about where our friends are from. Ellie likes seeing kids her age.

Then, at the end of dinner, we pray specifically for the needs of each family that we talked about all through dinner.

When we are done with the cards for that evening, they go in a pile. When all the cards and letters are down off the walls, we go through the pile again. The second time we pray for the people, we discard the cards.

This has become a beautiful tradition that brings family and friends near as we bring them before the throne of God each and every evening. Our kids do not let us forget! It also brings prayer to another level as we pray, not only THANKING God for our blessings, like when we pray before eating, but also bringing other families before the Lord.

So fear not. If you send us a card or letter, you are DEFINITELY being prayed for by our family (whether you want to be or not. haha!). I hope this encourages other families to do the same. We love you all and love bringing you all before the God that we love with all of our hearts.