3 Gifts for Jesus

In an attempt to steer clear of the commercialism of Christmas Rodrigo and I started a new tradition this year. Each member of the family will receive 3 gifts just as the Savior received from the kings or the magi. We as a family in turn give 3 gifts to Jesus for the year. We sat down for FHE and discussed what gifts Jesus would like us to give him. Joaquin even came up with one all on his own. We can already feel an increase in the reverence for sacred things and in the spirit in our home…way less contention! We review our progress the first Monday of each month and then on Christmas eve we will talk about how we did and how our relationship with the Savior grew. We hope this will help us focus more on the Savior throughout the year.

3 Gifts to the Savior for 2010

1. Go once a month to the temple as a family. This was Joaquin's idea. We decided to expand on it and since we live in a state full of temples we made the goal to visit a different temple each month.
   
2. Read from the Book of Mormon each day as a family.
   
3. Cultural Arts devotional each Sunday. The scriptures tell us to seek wisdom and learning from the best books and that all that is good is from God. Heavenly Father has blessed so many with extra-ordinary talents to give us beauty, comfort, peace, and joy. We want to come more familiar with these talents and to rejoice in them.
   

I will be posting each Tuesday a little about our "talent" of the week and on the first Tuesday of the month I'll post a progress update.

This week we are studying Vivaldi and I am completely smitten. Did you know he started playing the violin at 4? Did you also know that he nearly died when he was born and that his mother made a promise to God that if He would let her baby boy live that she would give him to the priesthood? He lived and much to the chagrin of his musically passionate heart she was true to her word. However, he soon found a way to fulfill his mother's promise and the desire of his heart… My favorite composition by Vivaldi is Four Seasons Do you have a favorite composition by Vivaldi?