I would tell any new parent that any good parenting strategy begins with a good home-library. Everything from the Holy Book itself, to What to Expect When You're Expecting, to The Little Bear Treasury. Fill your shelves with Dr. Dobson, Beatrix Potter, and A.A. Milne. Read to understand. Read to laugh, read to cry, read to be brought into the deeper things of life. Read to your kids.And this Christmas, do yourself and everyone around you a favor and re-read Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I did, just now, on the couch in my pajamas while Brave took his morning nap and Daniel was away with the big boys teaching Sunday school. I read it to screen it for its 5-year-old appropriateness, and I ended up laughing out loud for 2 hours and then collapsing into a blubbering heap (seriously) as I finished the last page. I cried because G0D so loved the world that he sent his only son - to a barn in the middle of the night - to save dirty sinners like Imogene Herdman...and me.
Oh that I would live my life shouting roughly and with a raw heart, "Hey! Unto you a child is born!"
