The Douglas Fam Lights Up
These are my two partners in crime from Atlanta (Katie/right and Ashley/left). We did life together as moms before I moved to Orlando. Our other sweet bud Amber is across the pond right now living quite the adventure. I loved grabbing breakfast with these two, as I passed through for Thanksgiving.
Below, you will hear from sweet Katie and how her adorable fam is planning to activate Light ‘Em Up. Look out for an Auburn van on two wheels screeching through Buckhead with huge blue-eyed angels rolling out with candy canes. It’ll be that Douglas crew.
This is exciting! This is our chance!
This is when we can join together! In Jesus name!
To spread His love.
And His light.
With each other.
With our families.
Hand in hand!
My favorite time of year.
Became the best EVER last year as we started Light ’em Up!
It was simply amazing.
Such fun. Provoked great conversations.
Gave me a warmth from the inside out.
Brightened my children’s hearts and faces.
And many strangers faces and hearts as well.
Our hearts grew.
Our faith grew.
Our imagination grew.
As we dreamed up ways to glorify God.
To serve others during this important time of year.
Rather than focusing on us us us! We were able to focus outward.
On others.
And what a joy it brought us.
How it changed our mindset.
It brought us together. And changed our Christmas.
And most importantly we shined so brightly.
We truly were lights for Jesus.
Seems like a daunting task.
Honestly, it was easy.
We took ordinary, everyday tasks and did what we could to make them special
What awesomeness when we can make an impact by just being thoughtful.
By showing love to others.
Just as Christ did.
This year we are getting started already! We are excited!
My 6 year old, Emma Kate, asked if we could use her money saved in her My Lil Money Jars for this project.
Absolutely!
Her heart is already in it.
Thank you Lord!
Courtney has wonderful ideas that only take a little bit of thought beforehand.
Making it so very simple, but still so huge in impact!
We took the list of 100 and dwindled it down to 30 over dinner one night.
Most of our choices are based on what I can actually physically do.
with three kids in tow, without breaking the bank, and while still making an impact.
So, most of ours will involve bags filled with Hershey kisses, candy canes, homemade cards, flowers, poster board, thank you’s, a few gift cards, and a lot of smiles and thanks you’s.
And we make our list.
Of WHO we will serve through this.
Some are strangers, but some are not.
Mr James, our UPS man …
…our water delivery man, our mailman, our garbage collectors, our firemen, road workers, ladies and gentlemen at the Y, our homeless, kids on the playground, neighbors, etc.
Over the course of several days we will hop out of the car.
Candy canes in hand.
Running into stores like Publix, and Target.
Cafe at Pharr and Felinnis.
To show our thankfulness and love to so many who serve us through the year.
The ladies at the deli counter.
The man in the produce section.
Miss Faye and Miss Andrea and others at the checkout lane.
Mr. Daniel who rolls the pizza dough while we watch.
Or Mr.Terry who brings us our lunch.
Will we cause a ruckus?
I sure hope so.
Nothing too crazy.
But we will surely make a scene.
A messy, loud joyful scene.
That hopefully shows the love of Jesus pouring from my children’s fingertips.
I am so thankful to have the privilege of teaching my children this important lesson from an early age.
To treat others as better than yourself.
To love God whole-heartedly.
To love others as He does.
To see them through His eyes.
To focus out. Rather than in.
My heart is full just thinking of this!
We are so very excited.
Join us! You’ll be so glad you did!
Grab a few things now before things get really busy!
Keep them in your car so you can do things as you have a chance.
It only takes a minute.
Believe me…I could not, would not do this if it was difficult.
It would be too overwhelming.
But I am telling you…the smallest gesture of kindness can make a HUGE impact.
And in the meantime.
Learn some names of those who serve you.
Have your children ask the waiter you always have what his name is. Or the lady at the deli counter.
What if we got personal?
Learned their names.
Even what their stories are.
That would make it even more special!
Check out this story that came in tonight on Facebook from Sara! Go Sara Go!!!
Our family has been so inspired by the Light ‘em Up ideas. It is truly such a valuable lesson, especially this time of year, to teach children (and remind adults) about the joy of giving and shifting the focus to what we can do for others. Tonight, we were blessed with an opportunity to ‘light up’ our server at a local restaurant. I noticed when we first sat down that she looked tired and maybe wasn’t all that thrilled to see me walking in with my two sets of twins. (Let’s face it, even well behaved kids can be messy.) I talked to my kids about really dialing up the manners and being extra sweet to our server and we planned our attack to ‘light her up’. Just before leaving, we wrote her a note on a napkin thanking her for serving our family dinner and enclosed some Christmas cash. We slipped out before she could see it and waited in our car, watching so we could see her face ‘light up’. My kids were so excited as we watched, waiting for her to find her gift. They are already planning on who we can ‘light up’ next. Thank you so much for the wonderful ideas and the pintables. My heart is overwhelmed with all the stories of children who are learning the joy of being intentionally (and randomly) kind to others. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:16
