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Favorite Family Christmas Movies

You’ve watched It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas… but have you seen these lesser-known Christmas films? For parents seeking family-friendly flicks this holiday season, here’s a short list of recommendations from your friends at Faithgirlz.

 

The Nativity Story—A must-see for Christian families this time of year, The Nativity Story is an accurate telling of the Bible’s account of Mary, Joseph, and the birth of the Christ child. Parents beware, young children might be frightened by the opening scene involving a raid by Roman soldiers, so use your discretion; yet be encouraged, there is no vulgar language or violence to filter. This beautiful film is an emotional and thought-provoking depiction of life in Bethlehem during the time of our Savior’s birth.

 

The Christmas Candle—Based on the book by Max Lucado, this story is set in the sleepy English town of Gladbury at the turn of the century, where townsfolk place all their faith in a “magic” Christmas candle. When a young minister arrives to challenge the town’s superstitions, he is forced to face his own shortcomings as together the people of Gladbury discover the true meaning of faith and Christmas miracles.

 

Saving Christmas—Starring Kirk Cameron, this family comedy aims to tackle the commercialization of Christmas by refocusing our hearts on what really matters most—faith, hope, and love.

 

The Christmas Shoes—Inspired by the popular song of the same title, this movie tells the story of a little boy wishing to buy a special pair of shoes for his dying mother. When the boy crosses paths with a workaholic lawyer (played by Rob Lowe), both characters discover the true meaning of life, love, and the holiday season.

 

Beauty and the Beet—Veggie Tales has quite a collection of Christmas movies to choose from, but here’s one you might not have thought of. Starring country music singer Kellie Pickler, Beauty and the Beet is not a Christmas tale per se, yet the story is set in snowy winter and features a theme of love and acceptance—which are certainly two starring characteristics of Jesus himself.

 

The Star—New in theaters this season, The Star is an animated depiction of the nativity story told from the point of view of the animals! It’s getting fantastic reviews from sacred and secular film critics alike. Take a break from all your Christmas preparations and head to the theater for this fun and biblically sound movie the whole family will enjoy.

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Keeping Christ at the Center of Christmas

 

As Christians, we know Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season. Yet it can be easy to lose sight of that fact when we’re bogged down with the usual tasks this season brings. There’s nothing wrong with shopping, baking, and addressing Christmas cards. Those activities can bring joy to our families and others. But when those tasks start to take center stage in our Christmas preparations, it’s time to recalibrate.

 

Here are some simple ways to keep Jesus at the center of your family’s Christmas celebrations this year.

 

1. Pray! Make good use of all those Christmas cards you’re getting in the mail by praying for each of the families who send you good cheer. Pray together at dinner time that God would bless their health and bring them prosperity in the coming year.

 

2. Not just to the people on your shopping list, but how about identifying a family in your school or church who needs some extra care this holiday season. Make a plan to deliver a meal, a gift card or other blessings.
3. There are lots of ways to keep your heart focused on Jesus even as you go about your Christmas preparations. Play worship music or Christ-centered Christmas songs as you wrap gifts and bake cookies. Go for a drive to admire the beauty of snow or the sunset; thank God for His creation. And for every gift you receive, thank not just the giver but God, too, because He is the giver of all good things.

 

4. Focus on Scripture. As a family, read the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:1–20. Challenge older kids to memorize Mary’s Song, Luke 1:46–55. Choose a Friday night to pop popcorn and watch a nativity film together to reinforce the truth of Scripture.

 

5. Play with your décor. Set up a nativity scene and place the wise men across the room. Leave Jesus out of the display for now; wrap him in a gift box and place him under the tree. Each day, move the wise men closer to the scene. On Christmas morning, have the kids open the Jesus figure and set him in his rightful place within the manger. This is a reminder that Jesus is our greatest gift!
6. Call it what it is. Rather than referring to the holiday only as “Christmas,” try calling it “Jesus’ birthday.” Create a chain of paper rings to count down toward the big day, and each morning ask the kids, “How many days until Jesus’ birthday?”

 

7. Let them eat cake! Every birthday needs a birthday party—with cake and ice cream! Bake (or buy) a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” cake and let the kids eat it for breakfast on Christmas morning. They just might look forward to that as much as the presents. And that would be a victory for Jesus indeed!

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Old Fashioned Fall Family Fun

Too much technology in your house these days? Take a cue from your grandma and enjoy some old-fashioned, tech-free family activities this fall. Here are some classic ideas.

 

Canning—Gather up the last of the farm market’s tomatoes and make a big batch of salsa or spaghetti sauce to enjoy all year round.

 

Corn maze—Get lost in nature, not your iPod. Many local farms host corn mazes, hay rides and campfires this time of year. They’re a great opportunity for fresh air and family bonding.

 

Bird feeders—The simplest way to attract fall and winter birds is to feed them good old peanut butter on a pine cone! Gather pine cones from any nearby pine trees and slather them with peanut butter. Roll in birdseed for an added crunch, and store in the freezer. Set the pine cones outside and watch the birds fly in for a snack.

 

Make a scarecrow—Looking for a fun fall decoration to place in your yard? Stuff a bunch of hay into Dad’s old pants and a flannel shirt (or buy overalls at a thrift store for cheap). Use an empty milk jug for the head, covered with old tights or pantyhose. Let the kids paint on the face, then tie your new scarecrow friend to the front porch lamp post!

 

Fall hiking—Choose a state park nearby and gather the family for a hike. Walking through the woods at peak season is a wonderful opportunity to witness God’s amazing artistry!

 

Pumpkin goodies—Yes, you can buy a can of Libby’s in the store. But making your own fresh pureed pumpkin is much easier than you might think—and it tastes delicious! Just cut a pumpkin in half and discard the pulp. (Save the seeds for roasting later!) Place both halves flesh side down on a shallow roasting pan and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for about 90 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. Allow it to cool, then puree in a food processor. Keep your fresh pumpkin refrigerated in an air-tight container to use in all your favorite pumpkin recipes!

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Celebrate Freedom!

4thofJuly

As we prepare for the 4th of July and get ready to celebrate our independence – it is important to remember what true FREEDOM looks like!

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

– Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV)

Challenge yourself this 4th of July to talk with your Faithgirl about what that looks like.

 

For FUN:
We enjoy great freedoms as American citizens – and should celebrate accordingly!

We’ve thrown some craft + recipe ideas together on a NEW Pinterest Board: A Faithgirlz 4th of July.

Pinterest-4thofJuly

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Top 10 Summer Activities for Your Tweens

Summer-Activites-for-TweensSummer is here!

This break is something your girls have been looking forward to for months. You, on the other hand, may not look forward to summer with as much excitement. The time off requires a LOT of additional prepping and planning for parents.

There are many great resources around the web outlining fun summer activities for your girls. We’ve compiled our top 10 below!

10. Get a Job
Instill values of independence, discipline, and responsibility by encouraging your tween to work this summer. Now is a great time to help out around the house, babysit, look after a neighbor’s pets, walk dogs, wash cars, open a lemonade stand, sell handmade crafts – or anything else your enterprising young girls can think of!

9. Update A Room
As our girls transition from one grade to the next, we have to accept that they are growing up! Does their room reflect their maturing taste? If not – head over to Pinterest and look for new room inspirations for your girls. Need a starting place? Check out our Redo Your Room board. If you want even more inspiration – check out our Redo Your Room book!

8. Plan Outdoor Movie Nights
Get together with neighbors and work to set up a projector, speakers and family-friendly movie. Really amp up the space with comfy seating, string lights and popcorn! Click for more creative ways to dress up the space!

outdoor movie

7. Volunteer
What causes are important to your family? Reach out to organizations in your area to inquire about opportunities for your girls to serve. Animal shelters and food banks often have tasks for younger volunteers. Through their service, your girls will learn valuable lessons of sacrifice, humility and caring for others.

6. Host a Board Game Tourny
Help your faithgirlz plan a fun-filled day at home. (This is a great option if there are a lot of rainy days in the forecast.) If you don’t have a huge collection of board games, ask friends to bring over one or two of their favorites. Be sure everyone knows the rules for each game and then roll the dice or pick a card to see who gets to select the first game.  For bonus points: If your girls are especially creative – encourage them to create their own game!

Game Pieces

5. Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
What is one thing you’ve always wanted to see in your area? Plan a quick day trip or outing to visit a unique landmark, attraction or eatery. Take this idea to the next level by dressing up as tacky tourists! Fanny packs required.

4. Pick a Book to Read Together – and take time to talk about it!
We are BIG advocates of summer reading… and so is our spokesperson Natalie Grant! Together, we’ve developed a great list of Faithgirlz! titles to recommend for your tween. We encourage you to pick one or two to read with your girls. These books are great conversation starters and can lead to some incredible chats about faith. Read up on Natalie’s summer reading suggestions here!

natalie-grant-faithgirlz-summer-reading

3. Create and Bury a Time Capsule
Identify special mementos that will help your faithgirl remember 2015. Include items to represent her best friend, secret crush (if she has one!) and her favorite Bible verse, class, band, song, sport to play, sport to watch, book, movie, actor and actress! Did you take a trip this year? Include a souvenir or ticket to remember a special family vacation or outing. Have fun with it – and only peek if she says it is okay!

2. Set Up Camp
Love the outdoors? Take an afternoon to create a campsite in your backyard. Grab some sleeping bags and enjoy a night out under the stars! Don’t have a tent? No worries! Get creative with blankets and sheets to make a colorful retreat. The benefits of camping at home? You have quick access to certain amenities (like a bathroom & kitchen) if you aren’t ready for the complete experience. Still seem like a stretch? If your girls aren’t the outdoorsy type – like mine – create a camp of sorts inside!

sheet-tent

1. Get Moving
Get your girls off the couch! Summer is a great time to try new activities. Gather all the necessary safety gear and encourage your faithgirlz to meet their friends for a bike ride, test out their roller blades, take a swim, paddle board or canoe on a nearby lake… anything to stay active (and tear them away from spending all summer on the computer or binge watching TV shows on Netflix). Just be sure to set parameters on where they can go, when to be back and who they can go with, etc. Use these ideas to give your girls a memorable, safe and FUN summer!

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Prayers for Your Daughter

As the school year wraps, we find ourselves thinking about what’s next…

What will the summer look like? What new or challenging things are in store for my daughter next year? Will she continue to be surrounded by good friends?  How is she growing up so fast? Oh… my goodness… will she start dating soon?

As the unknowns pile up, we often find ourselves grasping for control. I love this quote from Lysa TerKeurst.

Whether  we are excited, anxious or terrified about the growth of our girls, we have to remember that God has an amazing plan for their lives.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
– Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

I was given great advice last week – and I want to share it with you. When you’re wrestling with any matter, imagine you’re having the conversation with a friend. If you heard your story from their mouth, what advice would you share?

  • Turn to the Lord
  • Pray, pray, pray
  • Practice patience

I know! It is so much easier to give this advice than to take it!
To best equip our girls (and restore our sanity), we have to take our questions, concerns and celebrations to God. Pray for your girls each and every day and see how God shows up in your lives.

Need an outline? We’ve compiled a list of resources to help pray for your daughter on our Pinterest page.

Faithgirlz-Pinterest

 

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Your Story is Incredible

your-incredible-storyBy Jennifer Ebenhack

Do you ever envy someone else’s story?
That girl in your book? Your best friend? Some famous movie star or singer?

It’s something moms and daughters have in common: we often compare our lives to others and believe our own story is less important… boring… hard… maybe even downright painful.

But girls, I want you to know how incredible your story is. There are two good reasons for you not to get hung up on someone else’s story:

  • God has a purpose for you, and
  • He’s working everything out for good.

So, first of all, know this… the God who paints the sunsets formed you.

He knit you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). Your quirks, looks, and interests delight Him! The desires of your heart have been planted there by Him. Your talents and passions come from His design!

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

When I was young, I dreamed of serving God in another country. I loved stories of adventurous women like Amy Carmichael, who rescued children from slavery in India.

And guess what… God allowed me to live out a similar dream in the country of Haiti. My husband and I not only helped children without families, but also got to adopt three amazing kids of our own.He used the desires of my heart to do something meaningful. And He’s going to do that in your life too.

Secondly, God is working through all the hard stuff in order to accomplish the good stuff.

Sometimes we look at someone else’s story and are fooled into thinking theirs is full of “awesome” while ours is full of “hard.”

The truth is, we all have the hard. We all have pain and problems. We’re all afraid we’re just not enough.

If all I told you about my life was that God helped my dreams come true, you’d get a glimpse of the “awesome.” But there was a lot of frustration and difficulty in there too.

It took us nine whole YEARS to adopt our kids! And let me tell you, those years in Haiti were hot (no air-conditioning)!
The worst part was that even though our kids lived with us in Haiti, they couldn’t ever leave the country with my husband and me to visit our family and friends in the U.S. The paperwork was completely stuck. Sometimes our problems made me angry. And sometimes — like when thieves broke in — I was full of fear.

JenniferEbenhack-Family

 

But God taught me so much there — especially how to trust Him when things don’t make sense. And even though I doubted Him sometimes, He hadn’t forgotten about me.

A big earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, and there were so many problems, we were sure our adoptions would never be completed. But in the middle of that tragic event, God did the most unexpected thing… About one week after the earthquake hit, our kids and hundreds of other Haitian kids were allowed to join their American families in the U.S.! Our prayers were finally answered.

Where’s your story right now? Boring? Hang on… it will change! Hard? Keep trusting Jesus! In Romans 8:28, He promises to work all things (even the bad things) for the good of those who love Him.

Wherever you are, remember God sees you, loves you, and is writing an incredible one-of-a-kind story through your life.

  1. Don’t be jealous of the others. Be a girl of faith!
  2. Trust Him. Love Him. Follow Him.
  3. There’s no telling how He’s going to use you!

About Jennifer Ebenhack

JenniferEbenhackHi! I’m Jennifer, and I’m delighted to meet you here! I’m a homeschooling mom of five, a life coach, and a writer, thankful to enjoy all those things in the sunshine of South Florida. I love to laugh, listen, and share encouragement with anyone going through a hard time. You can me at JenniferEbenhack.com, my Facebook page, Google+, Pinterest, or Twitter. For encouragement in mothering, check out a couple popular articles here and here. Also, I’d love to bless you with a gift! Click here for instructions to receive a free copy of my ebook: Take Courage: Choosing faith on my journey of fear. 

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When you want to do great things for God… And He asks you to keep on being a mom

Enjoy these encouraging words – just in time for Mother’s Day. Guest post from the wonderful Jennifer Ebenhack
Do Great Things for God.jpg

Maybe your girlhood dreams resembled mine…

  • Rescue orphans like Amy Carmichael
  • Lead a jungle tribe to Christ like Elisabeth Elliot
  • Adopt fourteen girls in Uganda like Katie Davis

Or maybe your dreams have just recently developed…

  • Reach women with the written word
  • Fight to end human trafficking
  • Start a non-profit
  • Go into full-time ministry

God’s planted within you and me this desire to do something bold, something beautiful and purposeful. Something great.

We have these gifts we know are from Him, these passions, this fire in us that wants to change the world.

But, here we are… The “Ref” for another sibling squabble. The chauffeur. The maid. The teacher. The cook. And deep down inside, even though we know the good Christian girl answer, we wonder if a lot of the real “us” isn’t being wasted.

We live through days of drudgery. Where our brains, our skills, and our God-given talents are set aside for things like mopping a gallon of milk off the floor. And we’re just not convinced this is “it.”

But my sister, I’m beginning to get something…

I forget frequently, but day by day, year by year, it’s coming into clearer focus. I’m praying for the ability to fully grasp it and I pray that you will too:

I have been created, gifted, and trained specifically for these children, today. I am their mother, for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

No, you and I aren’t in the times of Queen Esther, and our roles feel much less glamorous than hers, but can we stop for a moment and try to grasp the times in which we live?

Never before has the family been so brutally attacked by western culture. Never before have godly men and women been so few… so ridiculed… and, around the globe, so persecuted.

We mothers are the keepers of our homes. And while we may long for some noble calling that others will applaud on Facebook or in an auditorium, the battle is raging in our family room.

We’re not just soccer moms, homeschool moms or working moms.

We’re called to be warrior moms.

We’re called to use our gifts, talents, passions, and time to save our marriages, to save our kids, which can in turn save our churches, our countries, and our world.

Your day will come, as mine recently has, when you see your children’s desperate need for Jesus. When it hits you like a lightening bolt: Nothing in the world could be more important than this job I am doing today.

Yes. We long to do greater things than making another dinner. But out of obedience, we serve. We are here. We are present. And when our kids’ hearts break, when the moment comes that they’re ready for His Spirit to work, we will gasp in wonder. We’ll fall onto our knees with the heavy knowledge that God prepared and equipped us for such a time as this. This calling is worth it all.

Press on today, mother-friend. Your role is no accident. And it is great.

{Shared with permission from Jennifer Ebenhack | Originally posted at TheBetterMom.com}

MOM-BLOG

(Need a last minute gift idea?! Find arrangements like the one pictured at proflowers.com)

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Easter with Your Faithgirlz

Easter Blog

Easter is only a few days away!

If your household is at all similar to ours, we often struggle to think up a few last-minute crafts, decorations and recipes to make the day special and help impart the significance of this Holy Week to our kids. To assist in your scramble (Easter… eggs… scramble… get it?!), we’ve put together the list below to help get your creative juices flowing!

Enjoy this time with your family and develop traditions for years to come.

CRAFTS

RECIPES

TRADITIONS (New takes on old favorites)

More on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/zkidzfaithgirlz/easter-creations/

Easter-Pinterest

MATTHEW 28

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

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