Welcome to Day #8 of the Intentional Mothering Series:

 
Since we are celebrating birthdays today, we thought we would give one of you a gift!  Today, Memories by Martha will be giving away a set of 10 handmade cards.

A sample of Martha’s handiwork

Memories by Martha provides all original design fabric and paper
craft goods; baby blankets and lap quilts including the very popular
T-shirt blanket (encasing your favorite memorable T-shirts in a
comfortable blanket), greeting cards for all occasions, unique wall decor
(varying from woodland creatures to more simplistic elements of nature
such as a tree), and fabric pennant banners perfect for Showers,
Weddings, Birthdays, Home Decor, Toy Rooms, Graduation Open Houses and
much more. Please contact us at memoriesbymartha3@gmail.com for more information or to place an order.

A sneak peek of one of the high-quality quilts from Memories by Martha

I wish you could sit down at the kitchen table of today’s post contributor.  No doubt she would have some delicious delight to eat (that she recently pinned on Pinterest), with a side of lively and interesting conversation. Amy is so fun, quirky, and wonderful.  We were partners-in-crime together this year, co-teaching a photography/creative writing/blogging class to some pretty cool high school students.  Amy’s knowledge and creativity ooze from her pores.  Be sure to check out her blog link!

Celebrating Rebirth

We love to celebrate at our home.

We sprinkle our celebrations with many family traditions, some that have been passed down to us, from our parents and their parents, and many more that we have created together as our own little family.

By far, one of my very favorites, from the family traditions that we have created together, is our Re-birthday celebration.

Yes, I said RE-birth.

We celebrate each of our children’s [re]birth into the family of God…. Celebrating the day each of my children asked Christ to be their Savior.

We do birthdays up big here. BIG.  We put a lot of love and fun into celebrating each of our children’s births- how could we do anything less in marking the occasion of the day their name was written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life? The day Jesus smiled big and called them His own and all of heaven cheered joyously?

I want my children to know what a wonder this is, what joy there is in marking the years of being all His.

When my boy asked Jesus into his heart the summer after he turned five, he said these words with a grin that about split his face in two: “Jesus has always been in my heart. But not all in. He’s all in now because I asked Him to.”

So we take the time to celebrate the day Jesus came all in their hearts.

We start our day with birthday cake for breakfast because it’s wildly different from the norm (even different from birth-birthdays). It cannot just be a regular, everyday, any day cake- it’s gotta be birthday worthy. This often includes layers and sprinkles. On the cake is one candle—as we don’t mark the years but the new life, being a part of the one body of Christ- many parts but one whole.

The celebrated child lights their candle as a reminder that they are the Light of Christ in a dark world. Instead of singing Happy Birthday to You, we pray a prayer of blessing, asking Jesus for continued growth and direction, for wisdom for the child and for us as parents to lead and guide our son to grow to be a godly man and our daughters to be godly women.

As with any birthday, this re-birthday includes a present. We give something to grow them in their walk with the Lord. Past gifts have included: Adventures in Odyssey CDs, worship music CDs, bibles and devotionals. My girls are at a point where they very much eagerly anticipate a new devotional with words written in the cover from their mama and daddy, marking the day.

During our breakfast of yummy cake, we tell the story of the day they asked Jesus into their heart, we talk about how they have grown and what they have learned since that day.

I love how each child speaks up to share the growth they see in the celebrated sibling and how they encourage more growth in each other.

Oh the incomparable joy of knowing each of my children walks with the Lord!

Our day continues on with family time; doing activities the celebrated child wants to do. We simply mark the day by spending intentional time together.

For our middle child, Sassafras, we have modified this tradition a bit, because her story has another special layer.  On Good Friday five years ago, we sat at the breakfast table talking about what the day really means. Our discussion led Sass to realize that she had not asked Jesus all the way in her heart. Her daddy asked her if she would like to go to a quiet spot and pray with him. She did and that day had much rejoicing. So instead of celebrating Sass’s re-birthday on March 21st, we celebrate each year on Good Friday.

We did not hit upon the idea of celebrating re-birthdays until after Sassafras came to Christ, and I couldn’t find in my boxes of papers the exact date when my oldest, Ms. Books, came to Christ. We know the year and we know that it was during Vacation Bible School week at our church. So we looked at the dates that VBS was that year and we allowed Ms. Books to pick the date she wanted to celebrate as her re-birthday.

This is all to say, that if you want to begin joyously celebrating re-birthdays in your home but do not remember the exact date your child(ren) asked Jesus into their heart(s), you can improvise and it will still be meaningful. The added wonderfulness of this will be that your child will be so soaked in the specialness of their re-birthday that when their own children come to Christ the date will be marked immediately.

The joy that goes beyond creating a new family tradition is watching the next generation (and the next generation) continue the tradition until it is an old family tradition. And for it to be such a tradition as this- the marking of the years of new life… Oh, what joy!

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4

In Joyful Celebration,

Amy

Amy writes about her every day-ordinary, common, crazy, God-blessed, contented life as a homeschooling, frugal-living, farm-dreaming Mama to three hilarious kiddos and wife to one amazingly rock-steady man at A Contented, Common Life.  She writes from the heart concerning all that she is passionate about … from homeschooling to Jesus-loving, from menu planning to frugal home renovations, from counting up thankfuls to her undying love of Pinterest- it’s all right there.

Deep Breaths:

1.  If your children have not made Jesus Lord of their lives, keep praying; do not pressure them, but faithfully pray and live your faith honestly before them.  Answer their questions as they come up and help them understand the gospel in a real way.

2.  If your children are Christians keep encouraging them to grow- celebrate their re-births in a way that works for you, and faithfully pray that they would know Jesus better all the time.