“Silent Night, Holy Night” is one of the most popular Christmas carols. And no wonder since it inspires us to worship Jesus along with the shepherds on that holy night ages ago when God became man and was laid in a manger. Just as the shepherds kept watch over their sheep at night, God the Father was keeping watch over God, His Son Jesus, sleeping in heavenly peace.

This is a message we all want to hear especially now with our world in a state of turmoil and uncertainty. God is also keeping watch over us, His children. His glories from heaven afar still stream into our hearts this Christmas season as we walk in God’s pure light. We breathe a sigh of relief remembering that our Savior was born and our hearts and voices break out in the words of this carol that is pure worship.

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born.
Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love’s pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth.
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth.
The carol found a foothold in Joseph Mohr’s mind when he penned the words in the form of a poem in 1816. He put it aside waiting for the time that would be right for a song to be born from it. It took two years for Mohr to find that perfect melody and it would be in answer to a dilemma; a broken organ.

A travelling group of actors performing the Christmas story came to perform in the little church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Alps. Since the organ was broken the assistant pastor, Josef Mohr, invited them to present their drama in a private home. The presentation touched Mohr’s heart so strongly that he couldn’t get it out of his mind.

Meditating on the Christmas play he took the long way home that night by mistake. The longer path led up a hill from which he looked down on the village. Mohr gazed down at the peaceful village covered in snow. The scene made him think of that poem he had penned two years ago. The poem was about shepherds on a peaceful hillside, watching their sheep at night. Their quiet reverie was shattered as suddenly a host of heaven’s angels came upon them proclaiming the birth of Christ.

He knew the poem would make a perfect new song for their Christmas Eve service tomorrow night. But he didn’t have any music for it. He hurried to his friend, the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. In a few hours Gruber wrote the music which could be played on a guitar. And so it happened that on Christmas Eve, the Oberndorf congregation was the first church to hear the now beloved, captivating carol Silent Night, Holy Night as these two men sang it to the accompaniment of Gruber’s guitar.

I realized I needed more of God in my personal life. The way I am now doing that is by guarding and protecting my relationship with God in prayer.  I am going to pray daily about every area on my life so I will be anchored and close to Him.  And I am going to share that walk with you so you can join me in it too.

In most of my blogging I have been sharing my knowledge of raising kids for Christ. Now I want to add this new dimension.  If we wish to help our kids go deeper with Jesus we as moms and parents have to first go deeper with Him. There are different ways of approaching this but I have chosen the following.

Step One: Just as we get close to the special people in our lives by spending time with them and being open with them we do the same in our relationship with God.  This if the only way we can become passionate about Him.

Step Two: We start by asking God to fill us afresh with His Holy Spirit, His power. We pray for His power to transform us and our circumstances.

Step Three: We put our expectations in God and don’t look to people, even the special people in our lives, to meet our needs. God completes us.  We move forward in His purpose for our lives.

God’s Promise to us:

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”  2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV

There’s something about putting fresh vegetables out for dinner instead of the produce which has been lying on my grocer’s shelves for a few days. Besides, I’m anxious to educate my preschool grandsons about where vegetables come from. And it’s therapeutic and fun!

My mini-harvest reminds me that fall and school are just around the corner. This is a good time to strengthen our relationship with our kids as they head back to the pressures of their peers. One of the best ways I have found is to bless them.

By believing in our kids and encouraging them, we are helping them reach their full potential. There are many ways we can affirm or build up our children.

I like the steps of blessing Gary Smalley and John Trent use in their book, The Blessing. I am going to touch on two today: by using the right words and by placing high value on them. If you’re interested in reading the rest of the book you can go to my resource page to order it http://ruthwillms.com/parentscorner.html

First we bless our kids by using the right words. Like a self-fulfilling prophesy, your child often becomes what you say he will be. If you put him down and say he will never amount to anything, he will begin to believe it. On the other hand, if you build him up and say amazing things about him he will know he can conquer the world.

The second way to bless your children is to place high value on them. Be truthful and realistic with them but be their greatest fans. You can plant seeds in their outlook for life that will help them accomplish the things they really want to. The patriarchs in the Old Testament gave their children – especially their oldest sons – a special family blessing. It confirmed to their children that God had a special plan of blessing for their life too.

Bless your children – literally – when you pray with them-at the end of the day or in the morning- say “the Lord bless you.” Your child hears that you are there for them but if you fail, God has them covered. Everything is possible with God; He never fails. He will see them through in the times when human dads and moms fails. They learn that God is concerned with their life and welfare.

When we affirm our kids’ specialness by blessing them we profoundly impact them forever. The interaction with us will influence not only their self-image, their current relationships, and future relationships, but that all important relationship with God.