Maybe this is sort of a personal question, but do you know the Christmas story? Wether or not we know the story, the Bible wants to tell it to us again. So even though we're trying to write Christmas cards, bake cookies and shop during days that are already way too full, let's take five minutes to find a Bible and read Luke 2:1-20.

Then, during the next (or another) five minutes when life feels too busy or too hard or too crazy, let's invite our children to sit down next to us (if there's any place not covered with stuff). And let's tell our children the story of what God gave us for Christmas. The story of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the angels and the shepherds. Our children will listen because they will know we love this story enough to know it by heart and pass it on to them.

This is not "one more Christmas activity"-this is the life of faith. We can tell our children the story of God coming to earth again and again. Each time we hear it a little differently. Each time God blesses us in the telling. Our children will start adding animal sounds, and then names, and then the words of the story itself. Maybe we'll tell the story with our manger scene. Maybe we'll act it out. The most important part is the simplest: We give our kids this gift-the gift of the Christmas story.

Try this at home: Sing "Away in a Manger" as a bedtime prayer tonight.