Encouragement and practical insights in bringing more meaning to the Christmas season for your children. I’m sure your desire is to be generous to your children and get them things they want, but will they experience being generous themselves? I’m sure you understand the importance of Jesus birth, but will your children really love that this is what Christmas is about or will gift anticipation nullify this in their hearts. We hope this episode helps you have a Merry Christmas because your families hearts are full of hope because of the Gift of Jesus.

Main Points From This Episode:

• The season is about nurturing relationships with Jesus, family, and those who need Him.
• It’s also about Glorifying God, so let’s focus how we can bring more Glory to God through our families.
• We discuss the gifts brought to Jesus at His birth and what they represent.
• Instill a heart for generosity during the season that echoes into the future. Do your children get opportunities to give to others?
• Find ways to serve others during this season.

Scripture From This Episode:

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Matthew 2:11 – “And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”

Ephesians 2:8-11 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands”

Matthew 20:28 – “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Proverbs 22:9 – “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.”

Galatians 5:13 – “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

If The Spirit Prompts You to Financially Support (We are a for-profit, for social good organization.)

Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom.

And I’m Isaac from Resolute Man.

We’ve been married for 21 years and have seen the fruit from raising our eight kids biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children. Too many children from Christian families are walking away from their faith by age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. Join us as we start an important conversation about effective parenting and the following. Welcome back to the podcast. Hey, guys, so excited to be talking to you today. Important topic.

That’s right. We’re going to talk about meaning versus materialism. This is a good topic for this time of year.

It certainly is, but it’s always good Sometimes as parents, we don’t even realize it, but we’re inadvertently nurturing materialism and we don’t want to do that.

That’s right. Motives matter, you guys. So today, obviously, God cares about our hearts all year long, not just during the holiday season. Right. But I think that when we’re talking about holidays and giving, giving can happen any time of year. Right. And we’re going to be talking a little bit about that today. But one of the things that Isaac and I have really been evaluating and thinking about is what are we what is it that we’re nurturing in our children? And that’s a good question for you guys to ask, too.

It is. And too often children are just thinking about receiving this time of year. And it’s really important that generosity is there and it’s okay to receive when we have the right hearts. That’s right. So we’re going to dive into that. But we so appreciate you being part of the 10 million legacy movement. You can find all free resources and ones that support the ministry financially as well that are really valuable at be courageous ministry dot org. We’d love to have you visit there and we just appreciate everybody that’s been part of it. Whether you pray for us, encourage us, share online, give five star reviews on the podcast wherever it is. All of that really makes a difference because there’s a lot of work that goes into the ministry and it’s encouraging to stay the course. It really encourages us to press on towards the mission and have more impact. So we appreciate you.

That’s right. So we’ve got some tips for you guys. We have three points that we’re going to go over and we’re really excited to dive in on this. But if you’re just starting to listen in, we’re going to talk about gift giving a little bit today, right? Yeah, absolutely. And so obviously, meaning versus materialism, hopefully you kind of caught that. We’re going to talk about generosity and giving. And I think that that is one of the controversial topics of today among Christians regarding Christmas, which seems strange, doesn’t it? Like I remember when I was a child, it was like this. There were expectations around Christmas presents and all sorts of things. And I think in the last couple of decades, a lot of there’s been this like divide almost between the Christians that are for giving gifts and those who are not. And, you know, I get it. I get that there is a challenge sometimes when there is such a big focus on that, you can look at where your kids hearts are at and sometimes get discouraged if that’s where their mind is all the time is what they’re going to get right.

It’s so important and so it’s really important. This time of year is really about nurturing relationships. At least that’s what we should desire, right? The most important relationship we’re nurturing in our children is their relationship with God, our own relationship with God. Jesus Christ is born. I mean, that is what Christmas is all about. And also to nurture relationships with family and others, outreach and evangelism. It’s such it can be such a meaningful time of year. But too often we just get caught up in a normal flow. And then after Christmas, we’re like, Wow, I wish that was even more meaningful in the right things. And if you’ve ever felt that before, after Christmas, well, here’s your chance sees the opportunity right now matters. And no matter what’s been going on, you can always bring more meaning to your family.

So we’re going to share some scriptures with you guys and feel free to use these scriptures, even in conjunction with your discipleship of your family during this season. Right. I think that one of the things that is so powerful is just talking to our children about what a gift God gave us and his son Jesus. That is the whole main message, right? But really, it’s it’s not just that that Jesus it’s not that Jesus came. It’s also that Jesus came for a purpose and he came to save us from our sins. And that is a huge gift. And so we’re going to share some scriptures with you. The first one is in John 316.

And I think most people know this, but maybe your kids don’t. And maybe this is something that we need to share with them many times for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

I love that because this verse, I mean, obviously for God so loved the world. It’s not that he so loved one person or he so loved Mary or he so loved right. He so loved the world that he gave his only son.

That means he loved everyone.

That’s. Incredible. And it’s humbling, right, that he would think about all the people. And he’s he’s looking at the sin, the flesh, the fallen world, and he’s broken hearted. We know that if you’ve ever watched your child make a choice to choose to sin, it kind of breaks your heart, doesn’t it? And I’m sure that father up in heaven, even more so because he sees all of his children and he sees all the motives, he sees all the things because he knows our thoughts even before we think them. And so for him to go, I love them so much. And I see the decisions they’re making and I see the sin, but I’m going to send them my only son. That’s incredible. And so we’re going to dive over to Matthew chapter two, because it talks about but this is just part of talking about when Jesus did come, Isaac and I, when we were talking about giving gifts and things, one of the things that we’ve taught our kids through reading scripture with them, but also having really good books on hand, that kind of prompt the questions and the conversations, if you will, that lead us to be able to disciple them on topics that are relevant to kids. There’s a book that we have that talks about the story of the wise men coming right with gifts. And so here’s one verse in Matthew chapter two, verse 11 The wise men have come and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, so they saw Jesus and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Well, God knew exactly what they needed. God knew, orchestrated everything. And it’s just incredible. These these gifts seem gold represents kingship. Jesus is king, and the frankincense sense represents purity, but also that he’s a priest. Many times Jesus is prophesies that Jesus would be priest. And he even talked about that. Also, the myrrh was given at his birth, but also used in his death. So very powerful stuff being given here. And so.

I think it’s very.

Expensive. And and they not only represented something, but they were useful. Just think about how useful these things probably were. Joseph and Mary, Baby Jesus. God was also providing for the family that gold was probably very useful as they had to flee. And you know, with a new baby and not having really anything.

Yeah, it’s pretty incredible because when you look at how Jesus entered into the world and then for these three wise men to find him and to worship him and to offer up gifts. Right. And I even just think of how the Lord really encourages us to build treasures in heaven where wrath and rest and moths will not destroy. And just thinking about how these these wise men there, they’re bringing something that’s very practical. But it was for God to be glorified and to bring reverence to him. And so when I think of that, that’s that particular reenactment or recounting of what happened in history. I am always caught with the question, what is the best gift that I could give? Because they were opening their treasures, right? And they were giving of their best. And so I think to myself, especially during this time of year, but really, we should be thinking this way all the time, like, what is the best I can give? Right? Which also goes along with other scriptures where we’re encouraged to work diligently as unto the Lord. Right? Well, if we’re working with anything towards as if we’re doing it for the Lord, we’re going to give our best, right? Like, as if he was sitting there, you would do your best. You would be preparing the best that you could do. And so during this time, like as we’re just remembering that Jesus came, but also acknowledging that he is here and he is alive and he’s in the midst of us recognizing that how can we give our best gift, right? Like, how can we do our best as parents to disciple our children? Because that is a gift to God when we’re partnering with him in the Great Commission.

Well, it’s such a good question. I think the greatest gift you could give them is pointing them to Jesus leading up to Christmas is to make sure it doesn’t become about materialism. Although gift giving is awesome and we do that. We give our children gifts. Our children give each other gifts. It is a beautiful thing, but we want our heart posture to be right. We don’t want that to be the focus and it naturally becomes the focus if we don’t do what feels unnatural to us sometimes, which is to proactively do spiritual things in terms of spiritual leadership. So you are a spiritual leader as the mom. You are a spiritual leader as the dad. You are as the dad, the pastor of your own home and your ministry team together to point your children to Jesus. And there’s all kinds of ways to do that. But if if we just get caught up in the materialism, they’re going to miss it.

Well, and I think that this is really a conversation about what the culture is in your home during this time of year. Like what is the culture? Is the focus on materialism because that is a cultural thing, right? Or is there a meaningful presence where you’re really focusing more on the Lord or you’re taking time to to worship more? Maybe you’re taking time to worship differently with different songs like Christmas songs, right? Although they really could be sung any time of year. And but I just think to myself, like, what are the things that are special that are going to make the memory? Like when your children look back on their childhood, what are they going to remember as being the most significant when it comes to this topic of Christmas? Are they going to be remembering the different gifts that they were given every single year, or are they going to be remembering how we worship the Lord and how we served other people and how we how Jesus came and he was the best gift and how thankful they are in their hearts because they understand that he saved them alone like that. There’s this personal understanding. They have a personal relationship with God. And do they understand that this was a huge sacrifice that God himself made for them because he loves them? He did this for the whole world? And is there that gratefulness that like awe and understanding of what this represents? Yeah, I think that that really is like a cultural thing within a home because it can be easily that can become you can get distracted from that meaning by all the other things, the busyness that can happen. Right. And so sometimes we need to stop and evaluate and go, okay, So if I felt the way Isaac was just sharing at the end of last year, what do I need to evaluate or audit that we did? Too much of that made me feel overwhelmed or made me feel like there wasn’t enough meaning in it. And then this year take purposeful action to cut out some of those things. Yeah, I think that that really is like huge, right?

How do you break the normal rhythms in integrate some other things? That’s going to be an important marriage conversation. It’s going to take some proactive effort. It’s going to take some thoughtfulness beyond just making sure you get the best gifts at the best price. That is something that parents do. But the most important thing we should be doing is glorifying God in front of our kids and and together with their kids. And there’s a lot of things we can do to.

Do teaching them. I just think that like just teaching them to what are we modeling? I’m even just thinking about myself with having a large family, just getting a gift for everybody could be time consuming, right? When there’s 13 people potentially. Right. Like that’s just immediate family, right? Talking about my children here and grandchild. And so, like, obviously that’s going to be somewhat time consuming to where like I could potentially many times my kids could see me like sitting on the computer or saying, I got to go into town cause I have to go shopping. And like, what message does that send them if it’s it’s many days, most days focused on that. Right. And like, we don’t really realize we have to remember that when it comes to setting a culture of meaning versus materialism in our homes, more is caught than taught. And so it’s not just that we’re taking time to sit and read the Bible or read good books or worship like we don’t want to check those things off of a list. We want to do them because we want to do them, and we want to make sure that our kids hearts are in it. But also maybe we need to be careful about like how much they see us focusing on other things that could leave them to think that our focus is gifts.

It’s so true. And speaking of gifts, another great scripture to jot down also notes are at be courageous ministry dot org, all the Scripture notes. But Ephesians two eight through 11 says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared and prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So Jesus is the gift of God.

And so is His, the salvation that He that comes through Jesus. Right? And so like understanding that that is truly the greatest gift and teaching our children that I mean, you could sit and you could read that verse to them, you could explain it all out. But then if you’re doing something that’s a complete opposite, where you’re focused and maybe your stress is on other things, they’re not going to catch it. Do you know what I mean? And so we really need to. Be careful about our own hearts and evaluate, because if this is something that is maybe a conflicting message, maybe you need to take some time to really reflect on where your heart and where your motives are with this. And one of the things that for me over the years I was just thinking about my own eyes. You and I were just chatting about our own experience and and like how many opportunities as little children did we have to actually be the giver.

Hmm.

Which is a really that like, that’s a big question that then we go, okay, are we enabling? Are we enablers of our children to be experiencing that heartfelt, awesome feeling of that? You get deep within your heart and soul when you give something to someone that’s meaningful. Like, are we enabling our children to experience that? Or are they only experiencing what it feels like to be receiving all the time?

So generosity is such an important part of this year, and perhaps they’re missing part of that because they themselves haven’t had opportunities to be generous. It wasn’t stirred up in them. And one of the ways that Angie’s talking about is providing ways for them to make some money for doing some things extra than normal chores and using a portion of that money to buy gifts. Now, we do help financially with the younger ones, but they are every bit a part of it, picking it out and so forth. Older ones spend their own money on someone in the family. There’s so many of us we do drawing, so they only have one person.

They can really focus and it can be thoughtful. And it’s not like this, like dividing and 13 gifts.

Right. But but, but that’s really powerful. If there’s if there’s maybe three siblings for sure, they could buy each of their siblings a gift and even making it, you know, just watching Ethan make some gifts for some of our extended family is been awesome at.

Wood.

Burning and learning how to do some things. And of course, you know, he asked me a question and I help him, but it didn’t take a lot of my help. I mean, it just takes steering children in a direction. And is there art they can do? Is there what could they do to be generous and use their own God given gifts to give to others? That’s amazing. I want to take a moment and give you something for free if you haven’t got it already. Is the date night one sheet? It is a beautiful document. You can download that will have some key questions on it for your date night to just get in alignment about what’s most important for your family. No matter what time of year, it’s always important to recalibrate. You can get that by going to parenting dot com and subscribing to our mailing list. Also, you can get all of our show notes and everything at courageous parenting dot com. And I also just want to share real quick about the parenting Mentor program. So many families are being transformed by going through this. It’s the six week self paced program with live engagement from us and even direct interaction. So if you want to join us, here’s a little bit more about it. You can find out more at courageous parenting dot com.

Steve and I realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our children. What Angie and Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world. It has given me the vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents who are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart. We now have a game plan to how we want to raise our children. We have so many answers to the questions that have been in our mind. It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in scripture this is. Do your legacy a favor and your self a favor and just do it. One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year, and I could not recommend it more. We’re no longer fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next generation.

Yeah, I love this concept. Proverbs 22 nine, which is such an encouragement, says whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. So this even brings up the concept of like, are we allowing our children to experience how it feels to give to someone who maybe even as a stranger, not just a family member, but someone who is in need? Right. And I think back to some stories that we have shared from our past. Right. And not I don’t share these things to impress you by any means, but to just give ideas because I get it as a parent. Sometimes I sit there and I go, What can we do that we haven’t done or what can we do that’s going to make an impact? And maybe I just don’t have that creativity and I feel like I need to try a little harder to be more generous during. This time of year. But really what it is, is that it’s a cultural thing, like, do we have a heart of being generous with all people all year long? Like, I even think there’s some people that are in our lives over the last 23 years and there’s like three specific people that come to my mind that I’m like, when I think of them, I think of the word generous, and I want to be like that.

Like I want if Jesus is in the room with me or he’s in my heart, or he’s he’s looking at me like that should be one of the things that he that I want him to think of when he thinks of me. Right? And so that means that things for me like that is something that is on the forefront of my mind, that I’m praying for God to give me inspiration and wisdom and to to give me spiritual discernment, to see when there’s a need and to be able to fulfill it. And that is such a special gift. Like to give your that’s a gift that you can give your kids is the gift of being able to see needs and meet those needs. And for them to experience what that feels like to really help someone. And sometimes it does cost money, but it doesn’t always have to. It can also be doing something for someone or serving them, right? Like.

How could you get together with some people from your church and go caroling that’s serving, That’s generosity.

I even just think about like all of the older people who maybe are scared to go out in the winter months, right. Because of just fear of getting sick or different things, or maybe they’re more shut ins. And then if you go out caroling, how much does that brighten their day and they don’t feel so isolated or lonely, Right?

Yeah. And can you serve, you know, people in some financial way? Can you? You know, we’ve done things and we’ve mentioned before where we took a certain sum of money and we turned it into cash so the kids could physically see the money. Yeah. And then we talked about, okay, well let’s be praying on how God wants us to use this money to to help people and to show God’s love.

And it was neat because over the course of the weeks, the kids even noticed, like, certain needs of neighbors or just different people. And then it became their idea, their prompting. And it wasn’t just mom and dad doing it. And so I think more than anything, like involving your kids in that process, brainstorming with them and letting them come up with ideas can be super powerful because people own things more when it’s their idea.

And the challenge is that a lot of people don’t ask for help. There’s people hurting that aren’t asking. And so when you start praying as a family together, God may reveal something he wants revealed that wouldn’t have been revealed unless you’re praying about it. Or maybe he would have, but you wouldn’t have seen it. There’s a lot of times God’s showing us things and we don’t see it because we’re not walking spiritually, we’re not asking for it. And so then we ignore it and don’t even realize it. So where are the needs in your community, within your friends group? You know, there might be someone that lost a job. There might be real needs, there might be kids that need help. So let’s think about how to increase the generosity in that spirit of generosity in our family. So Galatians 513, such a great scripture here. It says for you, we’re called to Freedom Brothers only. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another for the whole Lord’s fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I love that because during this time of year when it’s there’s potential disagreements about if you should do gifts or not, or if you’re different things among people in the body. This this scripture specifically is saying, hey, what are open handed and close handed issues here? And I think that gift giving during Christmas is one of those things. It’s definitely not a salvation issue. It is an open handed issue that is left up to the discernment of parents. I mean, there was one year where we like way cut back. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. And that was actually not because of finances, but more because we just did not like where the focus was in our children’s hearts regarding what they were expecting and where the focus was. And so we were like, okay, we need to switch some things up and maybe that’s you. Maybe, maybe that is where you’re at. But that doesn’t mean that everyone, you know, needs to also do that well. So like walking in humility and understanding like we as parents have the jurisdictions over our homes. We are the culture setters in our home and we are responsible for that sort of thing as much as as is possible. Right. Like you can’t change your child’s heart, but the power of the Holy Spirit can. And sometimes an experience can prompt a change. Right? And so as you’re leading, like what would be something that God would be prompting your heart to make a change in? Maybe it’s that he wants you to be more extravagant than you’ve ever been before in giving.

Yeah, it could be. And you know, I know that I don’t mean to get political here, but, you know, the destruction of. Economies around the world is definitely appears to be happening right in somewhat on purpose. And so, you know, I know there’s people hurting out there that are listening in. And maybe this Christmas needs to look differently for financial reasons. And I think that you can have, depending on the age of your kids, but you can have a really awesome meeting with your kids and talk about that. I, I remember when we lost everything financially and having a meeting with the family and just talking about it, and they just responded so well. It was just so wonderful the way I was going to be a much more simple Christmas and it was such a sweet Christmas. It was so amazing. Sometimes the stuff can get in the way and you don’t realize it until you can’t give as much stuff because something happens and I’ve experienced that and it’s just really important to keep the main thing, the main thing, which is Jesus.

It’s interesting because when I look back on that specific Christmas, which is different than the story I was just sharing about, I think about like the things that are the most memorable were the, the gifts that were given to us, the provision that God used people within the body of Christ or people that were in our community, where we were living, who knew that we couldn’t afford much. And they brought things to us, whether it was food, you know, sending a turkey in the mail or a ham so that we could have a nice meal that was a family member or just another friend literally going out and cutting down a Christmas tree because they were like, we want to bless you guys. And like, they knew that we couldn’t afford those things. And how beautiful was it like you guys when we showed up at our house and they were there waiting for us with the Christmas tree? Like to see the look on their faces and their two girls faces like God did something special in their hearts through that act of kindness. And if we would not have been humble enough to just be transparent about how we were doing things or how we weren’t going to be doing things and we weren’t complaining at all, we were completely content. And they saw that God prompted their hearts to want to bless us. That was the Holy Spirit, and that enabled them to grow in their walks with the Lord. And it grew us in humility, for sure.

Oh yeah, the old me. Before all that would have been, No, I don’t want to. And they also gave some cash to us also. And the old me would have been. You know.

Embarrassed.

Embarrassed or kind of prideful about that, you know? But God did something new in me, and it was an important thing. And I just received it with so much joy. And I appreciated it so much because we were we were in need.

Yeah. And I think, too, when you walk through hard times like this, like one thing that I look back with hindsight now and I see that God uses those situations because if you’re in a situation like that, like what Isaac was just describing, where the economy is really hit you hard, maybe your spouse has lost their job and you guys just are really financially struggling. One of the things once you get through that hard season because you will God will provide looking back on that and seeing how God provided the things that were the needs just increases your faith in him and your trust in him. But also I, I personally believe that when we view what has happening in a way where God’s having compassion on us through his body, we then have an opportunity in the future to have compassion on other people in the same kind of way. And I think that that’s something that for sure happened for both Isaac and I, where like generosity was something that we tried to practice before, but really it wasn’t at a sacrificial level. So then when we were in a position that, like people were literally sacrificing things so that we could have some a little even, you know, it was super humbling. And we realized like we should be giving more. And I think that that is a really special, unique thing that if you’re willing to let your kids be a part of the truth of what you’re walking through, they can grow spiritually in like in maturity and in ways that you cannot teach them by reading a book. You cannot teach them through words. It’s something they have to experience God and and it’s so life changing. It’s so memorable that it’s those heart moments with the Lord, right? Those little heart connections here and there.

It’s amazing. It’s amazing. And what, you know, if you’re in that situation. I want to ask you, are you praying in faith? Are you asking God for help in faith? And I just want to encourage you to do that. And are you being transparent with those you’re walking with? I want to make sure you’re doing those two things because they’re important. They’re important, and it’s something we can’t run the race alone. And sometimes that’s spiritual help, sometimes that’s practical help, and sometimes we’re the ones helping. And it’s just a beautiful thing to see the body of Christ come together when there is transparency, when we are praying in faith and trusting God completely. And that’s when we’re tested, when there’s challenges. Look at your challenges in life. Did you trust God completely? And if not, don’t beat yourself up about that. But let’s grow. Let’s read our word. Let’s let’s read what God says because he promises us that he will take care of us.

Galatians 513 also says for you. So we talked about this, how you’re called to freedom, Right. And not to use our freedom as an opportunity for flesh. So one of the things that comes to mind that we that we really wanted to talk to you about is this concept of how materialism is more of the flesh, actually. And so, you know, while we mentioned like this as an open handed issue, the gift giving thing, right? And that we live in freedom like this verse says, there’s also the next part of that verse that’s super important to not overlook, which says that we don’t use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. So even though you have the freedom to be giving gifts, we should never use that as an as an opportunity for the flesh, which would be materialism in this case. Right. And so we don’t want to focus on that, but instead, through love, serve one another, which that’s what Jesus came to do. Right? And then in Acts 20, verse 35, it says, In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He himself said, It is more blessed to give than receive.

And so when it comes to meaning versus materialism here, because that’s the topic of today, what it all boils down to is motives of the heart. Right? And, and like when we evaluate, okay, so as we’re discipling our children and we’re going about all of the different activities and traditions and all the things are our children being disciples up in this concept, did they get to practice how it feels that it’s more blessed to give? Are they going to get to experience that this year? Are they going to get to give a gift, whether that’s something financial that they worked hard to earn and then they went and bought it for somebody in need, Or maybe they make something or maybe they serve someone, right? Like, are we prioritizing that over them, learning what it feels like to receive over and over and over again. Right. And understanding that, like what we focus on of those two things is actually going to that’s the sowing. And we will reap either materialism in our child’s heart or the true meaning of Christmas.

Let’s face it, Gen Generation Z is a generation that a large portion of believe in socialism. There’s how do we we did an episode on this once. How do we make sure our kids don’t have entitled attitudes? Here’s just a beautiful opportunity as we go into the Christmas season to really train up our kids in loving, giving and knowing how special that is and how it feels and how that’s the real blessing and in the meaning of Christmas in Jesus’s birth and why Jesus is so important, so important so we can be right with.

God and that it’s because of him that we even want to give. Right like that He gave us God, gave us the greatest gift and giving us Jesus. The wise men modeled what it look like to open up their treasures and give the best gifts. And then Jesus died for the whole world to save us from our sins. And like that is an ultimate gift that of course we could never repay that, right? But like for our kids to have such thankfulness and contentment in their hearts because they have Jesus, who’s also called the Prince of Peace. You just read that verse to me earlier today. Like, I just even think of like, that title that Jesus has of Prince of Peace. And if he’s abiding in us and we’re abiding in him, then there’s going to be a level of contentment there, because peace and contentment go together, right? Like you can’t have contentment without having peace. And so the contentment comes from truly understanding that we, God has given us more than we deserve.

So, hey, Merry Christmas.

See you next time, guys. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode. For more resources, go to courageous parenting and courageous mom dot com for free online workshops, blog posts and bestselling courses. Also, we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online parenting mentor program. Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week we release a video with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

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