I’m not a fan of cheesy. So the “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” stuff made me cringe. A kitchy party for the king of the universe? Party hats, cake, even the song? So casual, even sacrilegious? How dare we treat Jesus as if He were… a human.

A human, experiencing human events.

Sure, funfetti cake mix and party blowers didn’t exist in first century Israel, but who am I to presume Jesus is somehow too cool for a birthday party? Take God out of the box, Diana.

In truth, a birthday party is the ultimate expression of what we actually celebrate on Christmas. The eternal God, who does not exist in time, became man whose years were markable by days, weeks, and years. Birthdays. The eternal became human. The unfathomable became measurable.

The One to whom a thousand years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8) had birthdays.

This is something to celebrate.

At the dinner table we were discussing the significance of God becoming man. Other than the obvious salvation thing. Because He was man, He experienced what we do. I asked Hannah, “Do you think Jesus had friend drama?”

She was shocked. “Jesus? No!”

Wrong. Jesus had tons of friend drama.

“Let me be your bestie!”

“I want to sit next to you.”

“Jesus, that’s kind of a crappy idea.”

“But I’m His bestie.”

“Jesus? I don’t know the guy.”

He knows. He’s been there.

God is not a distant force who pulls some strings for good people who pray hard enough. In the the human form of Jesus, He was sinless in His entire human experience and was thus the perfect sacrifice for our many failings. Our redemption and hope.

Emmanuel.

God with us.

We needed a change. I recently realized we’ve been using the same little devotion book off and on since Hannah was two years old. Now with two older kids, I knew it was time for a next step. We needed something age-appropriate, engaging, and biblically truthful. Something worth the time and effort of doing family devotions.

Luckily as I was starting this search, my friend of 30+ years Lydia White was in the process of publishing this very thing. She hadn’t started with the goal of writing a book; one thing led to another with her spiritual journey and parenting.

“When my faith was challenged, A.W.Tozer’s book The Knowledge of the Holy had a big impact on my life,” Lydia said. “Studying the character of God, changed my heart in a way unlike any other book or Bible study had ever done. Years later as a mom, I finished reading The Jesus Storybook Bible with my daughter and thought, ‘Now what?.’ I went looking for The Knowledge of the Holy on a much simpler level but was unable to find a children’s devotional that walked through the attributes of God. I decided to write out a summary, based on Tozer’s book, at an elementary age level. When another mom offered to illustrate the book and friends began asking for copies, it snowballed into the resource it is today!”

As she was going through the attributes, she found other resources that complemented the material such as songs from Seeds Family Worship and stories in The Jesus Storybook Bible. These are referenced in the book, and the website also provides additional tools like printable memory verses, flash cards, lunchbox notes, and a progress tracking chart/stickers.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of The Attributes of God for Kids at the launch party at Signs of Life – a coffeeshop where Lydia and Brett formerly worked as baristas (fun fact!).

Our former devotion book was fine for the toddler years, but we are past due for a deeper resource and I’m excited to do this with the girls. Our job as parents is to point our kids to Christ, and this is a great way for kids to have a solid understanding about the character of God.

“I hope this devotional sparks great conversations within families and provides parents answers to many of the tough questions their kids ask like ‘How old is God?’ or ‘Does God see me when I’m under the blanket?’ My hope is that by understanding the attributes of God, our kids will understand both Who God is and who He has made them to be,” Lydia said.

This is an element I love about the book. For each attribute of God, it applies the impact on their identities. For example, when it says, “God is…” it follows with “You are…” Like “Because God is Omnipresent, you are never alone.”

As we’re going through the lessons, the girls love listening and answering the questions. They enjoy the Seeds Family Worship songs that go along (SFM songs are direct scripture). I love that my kids are learning the most important subject – who God is.

And they call it “the Miss Lydia book.” :)

Check out The Attributes of God for Kids on their website or Amazon.

About three years ago, I went to party and was chatting with some new acquaintances. As moms, of course, the topic quickly turned to our kids. When I told one lady that I had two girls who were three years apart, she said, “You planned that so well. Good for you!”

I laughed in her face. I know that was NOT the godly response, but I couldn’t help it.

Planned? Ha. Almost nothing about our first two went according to our plan. Our first was an adoption with a majorly unexpected twist that ended up basically the opposite of our plan. Then when we decided to grow our family, we had a miscarriage. Nope, that wasn’t in the plan, either. Then instead of getting pregnant again quickly, we had a long wait.

I could tell you a lot of things about that time… the dumb things people said to me, the feeling that everyone in the world was pregnant except me, the awesome friends who cried and prayed with me… but there was my heart.

For the first time in my faith journey, I looked at my life, my plans, and then looked at God and said, “This isn’t fair.”

It wasn’t fair because I’d been a good girl. I grew up in church, I followed the rules, I didn’t have sex before marriage, I was in Bible study, I was doing all the things right.

But God wasn’t holding up His end of the deal, right? It wasn’t fair.

Unconsciously, I’d fallen for the lie of the prosperity gospel. The idea that if you’re good enough and pray enough and try really hard, God will shower you with all the good things.

But it’s a lie. Nowhere in the Bible does it paint life like that. John 16 says: In the world you WILL have trouble. James 1 says: WHEN you encounter trials. It’s not a conditional situation dependent on your behavior, it’s reality.

The world, even the “Christian” world spreads these lies, though. Think about the memes you see everywhere. “If you just let go of it, God will make it happen.” “Pray often enough, try hard enough, have more faith, dream big enough… and God will bless you.” And by bless you, of course that means give you whatever you want. That sounds fair to me, I like fair.

But life isn’t fair. Miscarriage isn’t fair. Infertility isn’t fair. Cancer isn’t fair.

But God is good. How? Through the troubles He warned us would come, He provides peace and hope, and He put us in community to remind us we are not alone in hard things.

So what am I trying to say? This: Family planning is a joke.

You might laugh and say, “Yeah, she’s pregnant with her fourth kid. Obviously she thinks family planning is a joke.”

No, this is not about birth control and family size and whatever. What I mean is MY family planning was a joke. I realized I had fallen for the lie that the success or failure of pregnancy reflected the success or failure of my faith. Without knowing it, I’d written up a contract where I did a pretty good job at following His rules, and then He made my plans work out.

But it’s so different. Because of grace.

Him giving me a baby does not depend on what rules I follow or how much I pray or how good I try to be.

And Him giving me salvation does not depend on what rules I follow or how much I pray or how good I try to be. His work on the cross, not my work or good intentions.

And that gave me a peace. It didn’t take away the ache or the grief or the longing. I am still heartbroken over our miscarriage even though it was five years ago. It was hard to wait. It was hard to accept that my plan doesn’t prevail. But I learned life isn’t a tally sheet of my goods and bads. Instead there’s hope. Even in loss, even when my plan fails, there is hope in Christ.

(This was originally shared with my MOPS group to recognize October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month)