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Join us for a MOPS play date on Tuesday, January 13 from 9:30-11:30 at Deanna’s Playhouse in Holland. The cost is $3.50 per person. Please send an e-mail to Wendy Moelker at wemmoelker@att.net if you are planning to attend.
Family Fun:
“Go Fish” a Kids Christian Music Concert 7:00pm on Friday, December 19 at the Holland Civic Center. Tickets are $16-$23 per person. Children under 5 are free. For tickets go to info@eventsofgrandeur.com or call 616-634-2909.
Visit a Live Nativity at the Critter Barn in Zeeland, Tuesday thru Saturday from 12-8pm.
First Church Advent Celebrations:
Dec. 14 – 9:30 am – The Manger & Humility
21 – 9:30 am – Shepherds, Trust & Good News
24 – 6:00 pm – Family Christmas Eve Service
11:00 pm – Christmas Eve Celebration
Our next meeting is scheduled for January 9, 2009. Jen Wolf a Certified Parent Coach will be our speaker to offer us practical suggestions and encouragement!
Please Note: At our January 9 meeting, the “Help” table is scheduled to provide breakfast and the “Relationship” table is asked to stay for 5 minutes at the end of the meeting to assist in clean up. Thank you so much for your help!
A special thanks to Nikole Jameson who has served on Hospitality this year. We wish you the best with your move back to Nashville!
Meeting Donations: If you would rather make a one time donation for the remainder of the year please feel free to do so. Your donations are appreciated!
Idea corner….
A few years back we struggled with how to teach the real meaning of Christmas to our kids despite the fact that we are all bombarded with commercialism during the holiday season. One thing that we started doing was hosting a birthday dinner for Jesus on Christmas Eve. We have fun decorating the table fancy (with kid created place cards) and making a birthday cake for Jesus. An extra chair is added to the table for our unseen guest and we finish with singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! It has been a wonderful way for us to truly embrace the real “reason for the season!”
A great book for more ways to “help your children find Jesus in our Holiday Traditions” is The Adventure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel.
Our MOPS steering team would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We thank you for letting us join you in the adventures in mothering. For we believe “better moms make a better world.” Take time to enjoy this special season in your life!
Thank God for His Son—a gift too wonderful for words!
2 Corinthians 9:15
by Julie Jones, Community Fellowship MOPS, West Chicago, IL
Our wiseman’s head fell off the other night, while we were setting out our manger scene. He joined the ranks of the headless shepherd, handless Joseph, and the wingless angel. To add insult to injury, he also permanently dropped his gift of frankincense. I sighed at the sight of the newly broken pieces. The set means a lot of me, a gift from my sisters before our kids were born, and I wondered if it is time for something new— a set that won’t break as easily.
As I pondered the various structural problems of our little figures, I realized that it was actually the perfect Christmas scene. When Jesus was born as a little baby, he came to an imperfect world, to meet us just as we are. Our anatomically challenged pieces are a precise reflection of that imperfect world, especially as moms.
We struggle to be perfect. We take on more responsibilities than one human– let alone a human with little children hanging onto her legs — can realistically do. We listen to the messages that tell us we are somehow lacking if we don’t have just the right body, hair, children, husband, house—the list goes on.
Yet I never seem to reach perfection. I am often like my headless wise man, without his gift for the King. I lose sight of the fact that the only true perfection came to us in the form of helpless infant, born in a dirty stable, without the rightful fanfare welcome of a king.
This Christmas, let us, imperfections and all, continue to seek Him. Let’s listen to the words of Jesus, in Matthew 11:28, as he says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” He does not ask for perfection, only that we willingly come. In the midst of this busy season, remember His words of love. And remember that first Christmas, with a babe lying in manger— the promise of imperfections and brokenness to be made perfect and whole through God’s grace.
