Works For Me Wednesday: Terrarium

By Alan

It's been a family tradition to spend the weekend around Thanksgiving to fix up the house for the Christmas season. However, weather and family illness slowed us down a bit. There wasn't as much opportunity to do things together.

Luckily, that week, there was a fun little article at one of my favorite web sites, Make Magazine. Someone took an ordinary incandescant lightbulb (now banned in several countries), carefully and safely cracked it open, removed the guts, washed it out, ending up with a perfectly clear little glass vase. There were several projects that derived from that idea, but the one that caught my eye was this lovely terrarium.

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Compassion For The Broken

By MAD21

We are all broken. Every single one of us. If we weren't, there'd have been no reason for Jesus to be born and die for us.

What does it mean to be broken? Well, do you suffer from: depression; excessive eating or spending; working too much; ignoring the needs of others; physical ailments; bad attitude; alcoholic/addict; the list could go on forever. The list also includes many things that would be considered politically incorrect to discuss in our society, but are very much on God's list of sins. We are all dealing with something. It's part of life.

But the big question is this: Is one sin worse than another? I know it's hard to not want to make one person's choice of sins worse than another, and I admit, it's hard for me, too. Very. My point here is not to debate whether murder is worse than gambling (I certainly know what my human mind would say). That is for God to determine, not me. What I want to talk about is compassion.

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Things To Pray For Our Children

By Kevin (Shooting the Breeze)

I am blessed to be the dad of three beautiful and wonderful girls. It is a huge privilege and responsibility being a parent. I love my girls dearly and I want what is best for them but I know that I can not raise my girls on my own. On my own I will fall short. Yes, God has blessed me with a great wife but even the two of us can't do it fully together. We need God's help and the best way to seek God's help is through prayer.

Here is what I regularly pray for my girls:

• They would know God's love for them and His desire to have a relationship with them.
• They would grow and mature in their relationship with God.
• They would be salt and light to those around them.
• God would protect them physically and spiritually.
• They would be leaders amongst their friends in doing what is right
• They wouldn't be followers of the crowd.
• They would be respectful and kind to all that they come in contact with.
• They would always do their best in whatever they are doing.

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Do You Have A Little Princess At Home?

Updated on Friday, December 11, 2009 at 10:35PM by MAD21

By Peter (Rediscovering the Church)

Do you wonder how you can teach her to be the beautiful person God made her to be?

If so, Lady in Waiting for Little Girls: Strengthening the Heart of Your Princess might be just the book you are looking for.

Beauty is much more than just an outward appearance, it’s an attitude of the heart and mind yet this culture bombards us with the idea that beauty is all about how you look.

Lady in Waiting for Little Girls has a series of lessons each of which include a short Bible story and a fun activity that mother and daughter can share together. Each lesson teaches a character trait and gives examples of how it was displayed by a woman in the bible and how it looks in life today.

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Life Is Funny: First Snow

By MAD21

This past Saturday we had the first snow of the season. If you didn't know that most of the east got hit with it, then apparently you didn't hear my daughters squealing with delight about it for HOURS. When we first woke up it was raining, then it rained and snowed for an hour or so. HUGE flakes among the rain, kinda weird, but very cool. Then the rain finally went away and it was all snow. The biggest flakes we've seen in a long time.

Unfortunately, the ground is still a little warm. The snow didn't stick to the sidewalks or roads at all, and probably only accumulated about an inch or two. But it snowed aaaalll day and into the night. It was beautiful. My girls begged to go out and play in it insisting they put on all of their usual snow gear head-to-toe. And they were off. I figured they would be out playing for just a little while since there really wasn't much snow to play in, and it was wet and cold. Their Daddy went out with them so I could do some work inside the house. I had no desire to get cold and wet when it looked like it was just slush out there.

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