RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

As parents, we want to give our kids great gifts at Christmas.  We get their wish lists and get as much as our budget allows.

Christmas comes and we give our kids the gifts.  They are excited at first, but as a few months pass by, they grow bored with the present and it sits on a shelf or at the bottom of their toy box.

Giving gifts to our children is fun, isn't it.  We love to see their smiles and looks of wonderment as they unwrap their presents.

But...I'd like to encourage you to shift your thinking away from presents.  I believe there is a way you can make lifetime memories that will far outlast even the best of toys and other presents.

Here it is.

Instead of spending all the money you have budgeted on physical gifts, give them fewer presents and use most of your Christmas money for making memories with your child.

Here's an example.  Instead of spending $200 on presents, spend $25 on presents and use the other $175 on an overnight camping trip that they will remember for the rest of their lives.  Or instead of giving your child a bunch of toys that they will stop playing with in a few weeks, use some of the money to take them to a movie followed by a trip to the ice cream shop.  Or instead of spending all of your Christmas money on toys, use the money to buy some board games you can play together as a family.

Here's the bottom line...rather than spending your time and resources on buying "stuff" that will soon be forgotten, use your resources for spending time with your children and making memories with them.

They will grow bored with the video game you buy them.  The "cool" toy you give them will soon find it's way to the bottom of the toy box.

But the time and resources you spend on making memories with your child, will never be forgotten.  Think about your own childhood, what do you remember the most?  More than likely it's the trip you took with your parents or the amusement park you went to together or the little things like making Christmas cookies together.

We are not buying our adult kids any presents this year.  Instead, we decided to use the money to go to Disney World together.  Even as adults, they will enjoy this and remember it for the rest of their life. 

Remember this...more than any "toy" you can buy them, your kids want to spend time with you.  They want to make memories with you that will last a lifetime.

As parents, when we look back, we'll realize that our best gifts were the experiences we had with our kids...the time we spent making memories together.

Those are the presents that will last for a lifetime.