..a kid thing...

Denny and I have a collection. A big collection. So big that most of them are in a storage unit in Pennsylvania. This collection is so important to us that we notice when one is missing or out of order. Both of our children are already claiming parts of this collection when we pass on. My dream house has a room dedicated solely to our collection. If we were weathy people there would be no end to adding to our collection.

The collection....books!

One of my favorite categories is Christmas Children's Books. I love them. I only buy one a year. Last year one of my gifts from Ryan was "The Polar Express." It meant so much to me that he gave me something I really wanted! No matter how old you get, you are never too old to read a children's book.





Last night's selection was "A Red Neck's Christmas," I read it out loud. When everybody laughs at the lines, it makes my day! You can never get to old to be read to! There is something calming about being read to. My mom is an avid reader, my husband is a voracious reader, my children loved to read while growing up.



Today I opened my book for this Christmas season and Renee and I really enjoyed it. The cover is misleading a little bit. Although it is about Santa, the story is about a little girl Holly and since it is Christmas Santa is in there somewhere!



When my children were growing up one of our favorite activities was library night. We would dedicate a night of the week to simply reading. No music, no television, no friends. Just reading our books.

Of course going to the library was always a regular routine. We would bring home literally bags and bags of books. Such treasures.

Being a reader develops critical thinking, good spelling, increases the vocabulary. Stimulates the imagination and can take you all over the planet without buying an airplane ticket. We have ministered in so many countries. The one thing we always buy is a book about the country we are in. That has become another special collection.

Since our passion is the ministry and preaching, we are continually made aware of how important reading is to a speaker. We can always tell when a preacher does not spend time reading. Reading is an important element in being a life-long student and learner. Reading outloud is also important. How distracting it is when people stumble over reading the text outloud to the congregation. It is such an important discipline. Disciplines can be just a natural overflow of your life or they can be very tedious and unwelcome. Either way disciplines are critical to our behavior and character development.

Well from a kid's thing to preaching....how did I get there?

Merry Christmas!