There is definitely JOY in giving and in thinking of others before ourselves. Something simple and something amazing happens when we serve others- beauty grows in our souls and humility teaches us about what real love is.

This Christmas season I am choosing to find ways to serve more with my family – including my young children in the gift of service. I thought this would be harder! But, after talking to my family this Monday night about serving and thinking of things we can do as a family – I realized it really won’t be that hard. We just have to make a plan and do it! My kids are excited to join in! Well, my 7 and 6 year old are…the three year old is…well three! 😉

This week I challenged my kids to earn $5 to help pay for travel size lotion bottles to hand out to the homeless this winter. I let them earn money for things that usually don’t get paid for – like 50 cents for emptying the dishwasher, 50 cents for making their bed each morning, 10 cents per socks matched and bundled… simple things that they can accomplish. They are saving this money to go to the store and purchase the lotion.

We also decided that we would put together a special package for a dear friend of mine from high school. This friend is a Marine wife currently living on a military base with their four young boys. She constantly inspires me as a mother and as the wife of an active Marine serving our country. I wanted to do something nice for her family this Christmas. Stocking stuffers popped into my mind!

I know all too well how quickly the cost of stockings stuffers can add up! And since she just had a new baby, I thought it might be nice for her to have one less thing to worry about in all the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping.

I took my kids to the store and together we found some good boy gifts – for an infant up to 8 years old.

At first it was hard for my kids to switch their minds from “I want I want!” to “The boys might like this?! Let’s get this for them!”

I thought a lot about my friend and the things she might need/like for her boys to have. She is not a big fan of candy.  She eats pretty healthy. So, besides the candy canes, we tried to find healthy-ish treats to add. Fruit snacks, Star Wars graham cracker packets, and Puffs for the babies seemed like good choices.

We included things that I see her do with her kids on her Facebook page- lots of kid crafts!  Play-Doh, crayons, colored pencils, watercolor paints- things that would easily slide into a stocking.  The party pack of Play-Doh was perfect size for stockings and can be divided up.

Since two of her boys are pretty little, we added a two pack of bibs that could be rolled up and skinny sippy cups.  Small boats for the littles, legos for the oldest, and a hot wheels car for the 4 year old were easy and inexpensive things that will fit in their stockings.

I am excited to send this off to my friend this week. I hope she feels of my love for her even though we are thousands of miles apart. I am so grateful for her and her husbands service to our country. I am grateful for the beautiful example she is to me.

Who could you send a fun package to this Holiday season?! I bet you could think of someone wonderful. A name has probably already popped into your mind! Never suppress a generous thought

For more ideas on how to serve with your family this year head over to The Small Seed Blog for their November Service Challenge. It has a free download full of lessons you can do with your kids, free print outs, service trackers and other awesome things to help your family get started.

Much Love- Lynn