Brenda Poinsett - Holiday Living: Using Year-Round Holidays to Build Faith and Family

A wealth of information... a plethora of practical tools... a userfriendly reference guide we will return to often.... By turning to this delightful book, we learn how to... celebrate in a deeper way, build our faith, and grow in understanding of God, ourselves, and those we love.

JULIE MORRIS, inspirational speaker
and author of 12 books, including Guided by Him

As a university professor of parenting and family decisions, I support books that remind parents how tradition and celebrations build stronger family bonds. Poinsetts book does that. Its an easy read, practical, with imaginative, budget-conscious ideas any parent can implement. It doesnt require focused attention nor big slots of time to read. It is a read-me-when-you-need-me book of information and creative ideas for inserting the holy into any holiday.

BRENDA NIXON, MA, Parenting Author/Educator;
BrendaNixononparenting.blogspot.com

This book is a wonderful holiday resourceand fun too! Brenda presents useful holiday suggestions with great insight and creativity. This is not only a thoughtful book for parents wanting to build meaningful holidays for their children, but it would also be useful for grandparents, Sunday School teachers, teachers of English-as-a-second-language students, and others wanting to share their Christian heritage with family, friends, and neighbors.

LORRAINE POWERS, Blue River-Kansas City associational WMU adult consultant, Missouri WMU adult special worker, and WMU ambassador

More New Hope books by

Brenda Poinsett

Can Martha Have a Mary Christmas?
Untangling Expectations and
Truly Experiencing Jesus

The Friendship Factor:
Why Women Need Other Women

Wonder Women of the Bible:
Heroes of Yesterday Who Inspire Us Today

Unwrapping Marthas Joy
Creating a Mary Christmas in Your Heart and Home

USING YEAR-ROUND HOLIDAYS
TO BUILD FAITH AND FAMILY

Brenda Poinsett

New Hope Publishers

P. O. Box 12065

Birmingham, AL 35202-2065

NewHopeDigital.com

New Hope Publishers is a division of WMU.

2013 by Brenda Poinsett

All rights reserved. First printing 2013.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Poinsett, Brenda.

Holiday living : using year-round celebrations to build faith and family / Brenda Poinsett.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-59669-359-3 (pbk.)

1. Holidays--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Holidays--United States--Planning. 3. Families--Religious life. I. Title.

BV30.P65 2013

263--dc23

2012034898

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are from the Good News TranslationSecond Edition 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL. All rights reserved.

Cover and Interior Design: Glynese Northam

ISBN-10: 1-59669-359-2

ISBN: 978-1-59669-359-3

N134102 0113 3M1

Dedicated to

Aili,
Noah, and
Christophe

In this book I mention celebration circle numerous times, referring to those times when we celebrate around the dining table or seated in a circle in the living room. These are treasured moments. Writing a book takes a circle tooa circle of people who believe in the project and want to help. Below are people who made up the writing circle for this book. Some helped with research, many helped with prayers, others shared ideas, and some helped with housework! All are treasured, and Im very appreciative. I work better when surrounded by a circle.

Bob Poinsett

Ben Poinsett

Janice Sitzes

Judy Mills

Jan Turner

Scott Andresen

Julie Andresen

Donna Coleman

Jim Tayon

Rhonda Myers

Don Huber

Annette Huber

Ruth Scott

Jane Barton

Barbara Williams

Chris Dulworth

Margie Cruse

Janet Smith

Amy Gaugh

Scenic Regional librarians

Joyce Dinkins

Andrea Mullins

Kathryne Solomon

Tina Atchenson

Sue Badeau

Sue Johnson

Eureka! A teachable moment! Perhaps a spiritual one! Certainly a family one! These thoughts swirled around in my head because I was excited. I had noticed a potential learning atmosphere around our house as Christmas approached, probably because I was a schoolteacher before I became a mother. As a teacher, I wouldnt have dared to hang so many decorations if there wasnt going to be a corresponding lesson!

My husband, Bob, and I capitalized on this environment by using holidaysfirst Christmas and then branching out to other holidaysto turn our familys attention to God. This way the holidays became vehicles for instruction and worship just as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Ingathering were for Gods Chosen People. Our holidays became special, set-apart days. They became holy days. Would something like this interest you?

Some people back off from anything described as holy. If a day were holy, it would be plain, empty, stern, dull, and certainly no fun! But holidays that are holy days can be meaningful, cheerful, interesting, and enjoyable. Heres how.

Know your holiday. With holidays, it is easy to focus more on the means of celebrating rather than the reason. The significance of the daywhy it became a holiday in the first placemay have gotten lost through the years. The way we celebrate may become the focus rather than the meaning. For example, as a child, I knew St. Patricks Day as a day to avoid getting pinched by wearing green and to make shamrocks out of green construction paper. For my children I wanted something more so I investigated. I learned St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland. He had won hundreds to Christ. Sharing his story with our children turned March 17 into a holy day.

Showcase your faith. Not all of the holidays we observe have a spiritual origin as St. Patricks does, but usually theres some significant reason for the holidays existence. This reason is often noble or at least it is something worthy of societys remembering, so the day has potential for connecting it with our faith. Labor Day is an example. This holiday is an opportunity for us to highlight the value of worksomething the Bible has much to say about.