What can I say? I have a new obsession...after the success of Valentine's day around here, I began thinking about the next occasion...St. Patrick's Day. Hmm...... I loved the teaching moments I could seize about Valentine's--not too tricky to contemplate how to tie in some deep lessons about God's love and our call to love. Everyone loves love, right? It makes the world go 'round.

But, St. Patrick's Day? What does GREEN have to do with God? Or, aside from green, the favorite "kiss me, I'm Irish" motto? Or the assortment of St. Patrick's beer-drinking themed paraphernalia I found at the Dollar Tree? Not seeing much to apply to my little darlings here....

So, I got to thinking (and a tidbit of praying) about St. Patrick's Day. I love to celebrate any occasion, love teaching moments, and love being more intentional in my mothering. I was determined. As I mulled over the worldwide Luck of the Irish day, I remembered the wisdom of my dad.

As a rookie pastor in a tiny town at a Baptist church where my sister and I WERE the youth group (this is not a joke)...my dad did the unthinkable. He did away with Potluck Dinners. I know this seems shocking, and perhaps grounds for his ex-communication from the Southern Baptist Convention. However, he instead instituted Pot Grace Dinners, emphasizing how luck has nothing to do with it.

A-ha! My light bulb moment! We'll create a BLESSINGS chart, and each evening for the next two weeks or so, we'll work on it during dinner. We can each list a way God intervened in our day, and our chart will be called "No Such Luck." What a great opportunity to emphasis to our children that God, not dumb luck, orders our days.

This is probably more meaningful than making my children drink green beer, or go around kissing random people because they claim to be Irish. Don't ya think?!