31 Family Devotions For Christmas Day NINE Dec. 9th

16 Days Until Christmas

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

LUKE 18:27

What a wonderful time of the year to be reminded that our God is the God of the impossible! Often family issues arise around the holidays. The stress of the season can cause personalities to clash and bring out the worst in us if we aren't careful. Pray for your family. Pray that God would mend any broken relationships. Listen for God's prompting. If you have family members who are hard to get along with, goto them and talk things through. Our great God can heal even the most difficult and seemingly irreparable relationships!

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank You for my family. Thank you that I have so many relatives who love me. Show me how to love them the way You want me to.

In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Family Activity:

Organize a baking day. Invite friends or family over and bake all day long. Little ones can measure ingredients or have a table set up specifically for them to decorate cutout cookies. Freeze anything that can't be kept unitl Christmas. Pick a day to deliver these goodies to your friends and neighbors.

Stress-free Tip:

If you don't have time to bake several different kinds of cookies, make five dozen of one kind and have a cookie exhange. Invite five friends to bake five dozen of their choice of cookie and host a get-together. Each friend will take home five dozen assorted cookies. If you invite ten friends and make ten dozen cookies, then you will have ten different kinds of cookies!

Recipe:

Vickie's Creamy Cranberry(or Blueberry) Bread

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese softened

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh cranberries or frozen blueberries

Heat over to 350 degrees. Mix cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs on at a time, mixing well after each addition. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture. Mix 1/4 cup flour with cranberries and fold into batter by hand. Batter with be thick. Spoon into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake for 65-70 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes; then cool on wire rack.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Enjoy.