November was a special time for us as we had the joy of curating custom gift boxes for a ministry center in Boston. These boxes were designed to refresh ministry partners who have spent their year pouring their lives into serving others.

The theme God placed on our hearts to encourage these ministry partners was remembrance—a call to remember Jesus in the busy, Christmas season and to worship Him with our whole body and mind through the gift of our five senses.

A special tool?! What would that even be?! She HAD to be referring to a broom. That doesn't seem special at all. And so it goes with family discipleship, too.

That set of conversation cards is so pretty I’m afraid if I let my toddler use them while we chat, he’ll bend them all up or spill his smoothie on them.

But the trade-off is that I end up not using these tools to help spark gospel-centered conversations in our day — because I rightfully hold them in high regard as useful tools but wrongfully hold them too high as not a fit for our messy days. 

Towards the end of the movie, my daughter commented, “It’s cool how each dog on the team has their own special skills. Which one would you want to be?” I could’ve left the conversation then and there, but I didn’t. When their hearts are engaged, little moments like this lend themselves to discipleship.