Our Season of Service

Inspired by some friends of our family, the Marshall family has decided to try a new way of exchanging Christmas gifts in 2012. We hope it will become a wonderful family tradition.
For years, the four Marshall children, their spouses, and their parents exchanged gifts every Christmas, but in 2011, we decided the gift-giving tradition may need a change since we are all so blessed and in need of truly nothing. We decided we needed to find a better way to celebrate the true Christmas spirit.

We suggested that we each perform acts of service in the name of the sibling whose name we were assigned at random. Our service will be kept a secret until Christmas Day.

Our friend drew the names for us and notified each of us privately of the person who should inspire our service. On Christmas Day, we reveal who we were given and how we chose to serve by posting our stories on The Marshall Family Season of Service blog.

We hope this tradition will help us focus on serving our communities and each other during the annual celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We invite you to come back to our blog on Christmas morning to read this year's service.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas, Haylee!

This year, some of our families endeavored to memorize The Living Christ.  Our family did it with a goal of finishing in 12 weeks.  While it took a little longer than expected because of a few summertime hiccups, we did complete it and it was a wonderful experience for us.  Family prayers became more meaningful because the children gave more thought to Him in whose name they were praying. The Spirit filled our home. Family Home Evening lessons were taught on the things we were learning.  Our children learned more deeply who we actually believe Jesus Christ to be and the role He plays in our lives.  We felt like Nephi when he wrote, 'We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ' (2 Nephi 25:26). Our home became a place of greater peace.

Haylee's family also completed this Living Christ challenge.  One day, we were talking together and I asked if she had any intentions of memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  We both want to make a goal of memorizing it in 2016 and so as my service, I have created (haven't finished, but almost!) printables and flashcards to help our families memorize this uber important document.  Upon finishing this project, I also plan on making it available for free to the public.  I know that this will prove to be a very valuable service investment!  Merry Christmas, Haylee!




No comments:

Post a Comment