love.

Have you ever put thought into how you celebrate certain holidays? Honestly, until a few years ago, I didn't. However, that all changed after reading Noel Piper's, "Treasuring God in Our Traditions." I started to question my motive behind what and how my family celebrated and it has stirred me to create ways to point my children to Christ in our everyday, but also during holidays.

So...it's February and this is how I decided to take the focus off of cupid & onto Jesus. I made our "Love Tree" out of branches from our backyard (the boys helped collect these...after first using them as swords, of course), a vase and some raffia. **Side note, this is a tree of all seasons...November: Thankful Tree, December: Advent Tree, February: Love Tree and then it will become our Lent Tree.

Then I cut out 29 hearts, laminated them (small step to help salvage these for years to come) and punched a hole in each of them. Then, simply wrote the verse reference on each heart because I want the boys to practice "book-chapter-verse" and how to navigate the Bible. Voila! You have a "Love Tree."

Several have asked me which verses I used, so, here is my list:

1. 1 John 4:19

2. Deuteronomy 6:5

3. Leviticus 19:18

4. Proverbs 3:11-12

5. Psalm 136:8

6. Psalm 143:8

7. Hosea 11:1 and 4

8. Matthew 5:44

9. Matthew 22:36-38

10. Mark 10:14 and 16

11. John 3:16

12. John 15:9

13. John 15:12

14. Romans 5:8

15. Romans 8:38-39

16. 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

17. 2 Corinthians 5:21

18. Galatians 5:22

19. Ephesians 5:2

20. Colossians 3:12

21. 2 Thessalonians 3:5

22. 1 Timothy 6:11

23. Titus 3:4-7

24. Hebrews 10:23-24

25. 1 John 2:4-6

26. 1 John 3:16

27. 1 John 4:18

28. 2 John 1:6

29. Psalm 100

And our memory verse for the month is 1 John 4:19:

"We love because He first loved us."

Blessings,

Kim