Two Great Christmas Books

Someone from the Five in a Row message boards recommended reading the Christmas series from Donna VanLiere...I went to the library two days ago and checked the first two out never dreaming that I would plough through them so quickly! It took me one day to read The Christmas Shoes and another to read The Christmas Blessing. Both of them are real tear jerkers...so if you don't want to cry don't even think of picking up these books!One of the things that really got me to thinking as I read these books (the main character being a boy who loses his mother when he is young) is what lessons I am leaving my children with. If something were to happen to me (God forbid), how would they view the world? How would they view their hardships? How would they view God? Are the lessons that I am teaching them (how to read, to write, to understand mathematical concepts) all that important when it comes to issues of the heart and their relationship with God? I can honestly say after reading these books, that the real lessons in life have to do with our hearts and our relationships.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book...it is my hope for my boys: "Time in the valley will teach you to be a man, Nathan. It's where your character will form. I hope you go through the valley so that you'll learn how to love and feel and understand. And when life wounds you, I hope it is because you loved people, not because you mistreated them." I plan to get the other two books in the series and read them soon...The Christmas Hope and The Christmas Promise.