Tag Archives: forgiveness

Family Devotion: Snow Day

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snowdaypic

Photo Credit: net_efekt via Compfight cc

Verse to Remember: “Even though your sins are bright red, they will be as white as snow.” – Isaiah 1:18 (NIrV)

Talk About This:

What is your favorite thing to do in the snow? Go sledding? Build a snowman? Make snow ice cream? Have a snowball fight?

When a snow day hits, there are always plenty of fun things to do, but the best snow days are the ones we don’t expect. We go to bed one night thinking we’re going to have an average, ordinary day, but instead we wake up to a winter wonderland.

No school! No homework! Just a day to play and have fun! On a snow day, what should happen doesn’t happen, but what happens instead is something awesome.

Did you know that God talks about a snow day in the Bible? It’s even better than sledding and snow ice cream. It’s a snow day that we can experience even in July.

God’s snow day is all about forgiveness.

Can you think of a time when you’ve done something bad? The Bible calls that sin, and sin causes all kinds of problems. It messes up our friendships, gets us into trouble and makes us feel yucky. Worst of all, sin pushes us away from God.

But God has something called grace. That means He loves us even though we’ve done wrong things. He still wants to be our friend. That’s why He sent Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to take our punishment for us so we could be friends with God.

The Bible says, “Even though your sins are bright red, they will be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18 NIrV). That means our hearts will be made clean and fresh and new because of Jesus.

Like every great snow day, it’s a wonderful surprise. What should have happened didn’t happen, but what happened instead was something awesome.

Putting It Into Action:

Is there anything you’ve done wrong lately you feel guilty about? If so, just talk to God about it. Tell Him you’re sorry. Ask Him to help you start over and thank Him for the forgiveness He promises through Jesus.

Prayer:

God, thank You for sending Jesus to take away my sin. Thank You that I can be forgiven and brand new. Thank You for the the best snow day ever! Amen!

 For Extra Fun:

Check out these instructions for how to make some cool paper snowflakes.

The Game of Perfection

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I’m not sure what my daughters have against me, but I’m convinced they’re trying to drive me crazy.  Take the other day, for instance.  They know how I feel about the Milton-Bradley game called Perfection.  They know how competitive I am.  They know that I let them play with it for about five minutes last Christmas before commandeering it so that I could master it myself.   They know all this, yet they couldn’t resist messing with my head.  

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My Grown Up St. Patrick’s Day List

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Before this week I could have told you everything I knew about St. Patrick’s Day in less than thirty seconds.

Start your stopwatch, because here we go:

1.  McDonald’s sells a shamrock shake.
2.  People drink lots of green beer.
3.  There’s a parade every ten feet.
4.  Lucky Charms are magically delicious.

Not much to work with, right?

I also knew there were some movies made about a scary leprechaun a few years ago, and my family used to use Irish Spring soap, but that was the extent of my St. Patrick’s Day knowledge.

Given my ignorance of all things Irish and green, I decided to educate myself with some online research.

All I really wanted to know was – “Who was St. Patrick and what was his deal?”

I found out from my totally reliable sources on the Internet that there are a bunch of stories and traditions about St. Patrick, but only a couple of things most people can agree on for sure.

1.  Patrick was an Englishman who was kidnapped by Irish soldiers, taken back to Ireland and forced into slavery.

2.  After escaping from his captors and returning to his homeland, he decided to go back to Ireland and spend the rest of his life trying to share the love of God with the very people who had enslaved him.

When I read that, I thought, wow, no wonder this guy gets his own holiday.  If someone had kidnapped and enslaved me, the last thing I would want to do is go back and help them.

Even if I could be so noble as not to demand justice or revenge, I, at least, would not want to see their ugly faces.   And I certainly wouldn’t run around wearing green.

It’s not that I’m big on grudges.  I just don’t like to forgive people who’ve been mean to me.

Anybody remember Jonah?  When God tried to send him to take a message of mercy to his enemies, the Ninevites, he turned around and ran the other way.  That’s how he ended up in the belly of a fish, and I probably would have been stuck in there with him.

But not Patrick.  He was compelled by a love that went beyond forgiving his enemy.  He actually wanted them to know the same grace he had experienced.  He apparently spent the rest of his life serving the people who had caused him so much trouble.

Jesus said something about loving your enemy and praying for those who hurt you.  Sounds like Patrick was naive enough to actually take him up on it.

Maybe for those of us who aren’t Irish or don’t know that much about St. Patrick’s Day, we can celebrate this year by simply following Patrick’s example.  Maybe we could find someone who has injured us and look for some way to show them kindness.  It doesn’t mean we have to trust them again or give them an opportunity to do us more harm, but we could just bless them with some love and call it good.

So send a note, make a phone call or share a bowl of Lucky Charms.  Maybe, like Patrick, you’ll make peace with an old enemy.  Or at the very least, they may turn green with envy over the grace that flows so freely from your life.