Keeps Coming Up

Holy Toledo!!! Over the last few days the topic of living simply and thinking of the bigger picture keeps being thrown in my face, especially when it comes to raising my kiddo. Here a few examples:
At our small group there was a lady that was telling me about what they did for Christmas. She has elementary age kids and they opened all their presents on Christmas Eve and then went and fed the homeless on Christmas Day. This was her daughters idea because they had also done it at Thanksgiving and had such a great time. I love that she and her husband are modeling what is really important to their children.
At church this last weekend the pastor was talking about the top seven things a man needs to be and/or do. One of the the points that stood out like a neon sign was when he said that you need to lead your family into having a purpose.
I had a very meaningful conversation with a friend of mine yesterday. She was saying that she and her husband truly desire that their kids feel thankful and about life, find pleasure in the small things, and not feel a sense of entitlement to all the stuff that bombards us daily. They have chosen to work on this from the very beginning and that meant setting boundaries for themselves as parents and boundaries for family members that may have a tendency to spoil the kiddos (even though the spoiling is totally out of love). These boundaries are thought to be too strict by the average person, the average American. I was so inspired by what she had to say.
When I got home this afternoon there was a post on another friends blog about how she wants to simplify life and wants to teach her children how to enjoy the little things like playing outside, baking cookies, things tat don't include electronics, you get the idea. This is also something that I really desire for my daughter. I do not want her to be someone that cannot figure out how to entertain herself without a television or computer.
I do not think that Allan and I purposefully spoil Claire, but I know that we have to a certain degree. I do however think that we have not discouraged the spoiling by others in her life. She is too young to realize it at the moment, but it will not be too long beofore she just expects to be given anything that she may have wished for and that is something that we would love to nip in the bud. We need to set boundaries for ourselves and for others in her life, but that will be incredibly hard and uncomfortable. I am not sure how to go about that at the moment, but we will be brainstorming where our boundaries will be placed in the very near future I am sure. We also want Claire to be someone that thinks of others. I have prayed that she would be a girl filled with joy and full of compassion since the day she was born. Boy howdy do we have our work cut out for us, but I think that this is a task that I am really looking forward to! I am both overwhelmed and overjoyed that God decided to give Allan and I the chance to help mold Claire into the woman she was vreated to be...wish us luck!

I would love to open the floor to hearing your stories of how you have simplified your life and the lives of your kiddos, how you are helping them have an OUTWARD focus, if you want to share.