A New Year and New Opportunities

The new year is a time of looking forward and planning—planning for the rest of the school year, planning for which activities and sports our children will participate in, planning our finances, planning to remodel the kitchen, planning that long awaited vacation...on and on. But there is something that often gets missed in these plans. In her article "The New Year for Your Children" (posted at the Gospel Coalition) Christina Fox puts her finger on what often is missing,

But the one thing we won't hear or see are ads telling us to invest more time in our children. We won't be encouraged to teach our children the Word of God. Amid all the talk about resolutions and goals, we won't hear about the importance of speaking the gospel into the hearts of our children, pouring love into them, and leading them down the path that leads to life. In fact, much of what we hear will tell us to do just the opposite: to fill our time with activities, our minds with the latest news, and our hearts with the love of possessions. And just like the possibilities for the new year, the opportunities to do so are endless. The more our time is consumed with busyness and activities, the less time we have to teach and instruct our children about their Savior. This year, let's be intentional with teaching our children about Christ. While everyone else makes plans and sets goals for all that they will do this year, let's consider specific ways we can point our children to their Savior.

Read the whole article here as Mrs. Fox gives some practical ways you can plan toward being more intentional in pointing your children to Jesus. May we as parents and teachers never lose sight of this in the midst of all of our busy plans for ourselves and our children this new year! (Image courtesy of byjeng at FreeDigitalPhotos.net). Important Note: Our plan for this blog in 2014 is to post Monday through Thursday. Please join us again on Monday, January 13.