Archive for the ‘advent’ Category
Oh come let us adore Him!
So….
My very best intentions of turning this blog into an advent celebration extravaganza for the month of December went horribly horribly wrong. Though I did not post about it here, we *have* had a delightful month of reading scriptures and learning about the prophecies of the Messiah.
The probability factor alone is compelling enough to get one to investigate the claims of Jesus.
The Bible said that he would be born of a virgin, would be born in Bethlehem, that He would be called a Nazarene and that He would come out of Egypt. It foretold that he would be worshiped by Kings who would come on camels and give gifts of Gold and Frankincense. All of those things were prophesied in the Old Testament and came to pass when Jesus was born. (These are just the prophecies about his BIRTH. The ones about his life, death and resurrection are more numerous and came to pass as well. And the most exciting part? The prophecies about His glorious reign are more numerous!)
We have hope and peace, we know love and joy because of His birth (and ultimately His death and resurrection.) The season of advent is a wonderful opportunity for our family to spend an entire month being deliberate about our remembrance and celebration of God’s gift.
Yes, I know, Christmas is a conglomeration of a pagan and a Christian Holiday. It is a celebration that was superimposed over an old pagan tradition in an attempt to “Christianize” it. Yes, I know that Jesus probably was not born in December and that the wise men did not show up right after Mary delivered Him. I do know, however, that His story is for all the ages. I know that God was made into flesh to dwell among us.
Along with our nightly advent devotions, we have watched the Nativity Story several times. With each viewing, I am struck by the “realness” of it all. Though we do not know the exact details of some things, the intricacies woven into the storyline are beautiful. (Just a few examples: Joseph buys back – redeems – a donkey for Mary’s father after it had been taken to pay his taxes which he could not afford to pay. They would later take this animal to Bethlehem on their Journey that would fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah would be born there. Mary almost gets bitten by a snake as they are crossing a river – that pesky serpent – doesn’t he know that he can’t win? And as the wisemen offer their gifts, the one who was the most skeptical and reluctant to follow the star to find Jesus is the one who, through tears, presents him with the gift of Myrrh saying that it is “for His sacrifice” – foreshadowing Jesus’ death.) It is a beautiful movie and a family tradition here in the Clark house!
May you prepare Him room today!
He is a savior for the lowest of men to the Highest of Kings!
Angels From The Realms Of Glory – Bebo Norman
Angels from the
Realms of Glory
Wing your flight o’er the Earth
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim the Messiah’s birthCome and Worship
Come and Worship
Come and Worship
Worship Christ the Newborn KingShepards in the
Fields abiding
Watching o’er the flocks by night
God with man is
Now residing
Yonder shines the infant lightCome and Worship
Come and Worship
Come and Worship
Worship Christ the Newborn KingCome and Worship
Come and Worship
Come and Worship
Worship Christ the Newborn KingSaints before the
Alter bending
Watching long in hope and fear
Suddenly the Lord descending
In His temple shall appearCome and Worship
Come and Worship
Come and Worship
Worship Christ the Newborn KingCome and Worship
Come and Worship
Come and Worship
Worship Christ…the Newborn King
Advent: Week 1 days 3,4,5 and 6
OK – So how silly was I to think that I would get to blog every single day about what we did for Advent? Sheesh. Most days I don’t even get a shower!
As I mentioned in my first Advent post, I make an attempt each night to tie our activity or gift in with that night’s devotional. I managed to do that 3 out of the 4 nights this week.
First, we got out our nativity sets and the kids put them in their rooms. We have a plush one and a playmobil one. The kids really love it when these come out. Oh, and look! Nathan’s set has a few “extra” characters!
On Tuesday night our scripture text was from Genesis. We read the story of Adam and Eve and saw that after they disobeyed God, their eyes were opened and they saw their nakedness and were ashamed so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
(What does this have to do with Christmas, you ask? Well, the whole point of celebrating Advent is so that we don’t just focus in on one aspect of the gospel story. At Christmas, we celebrate the fact that Christ came as a baby but it’s necessary to put that in context. WHY did He have to come at all? To understand that, we have to understand the fallen nature of man. Therefore, we start in Genesis.)
Anyhoo – on the night when we read the verses about Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves, what do you think the kids got for their Advent gifts? You guessed it: NEW UNDERWEAR! (Although they were not made of fig leaves. These were donned with Disney Princesses ad Spiderman! 
)
Another night we discussed the miracle of God parting the sea so that the Israelites could walk across on dry land. With all that talk of walls of water, the kids got new fancy Christmas cups for the water they like to keep on their nightstands.
Some not so related things we did this week:
We put up “popit” in the kitchen and introduced Sarah to big blow-up Christmas decorations – She was a bit scared but I think she likes him:
. Tonight, we bundled up and went to pick out a tree and on our way home, we went and saw “The Big Baby Jesus.”
Here are a few interesting things I came across this week in reading about Christmas.
Christmas for homeschoolers
Hope you and yours are ENJOYING this wonderful season!!!!
Advent – Week 1 / Day 2
Tonight we lit our prophecy candle once more and talked again about what a prophecy was. I love watching the wheels turn in Abby and Nathan’s heads as we talk about the big things of God. (Sometimes, of course, they have blank stares or say totally random things while we’re having our devotions but at least we’re having family time, right?)
They listened as Bruce read Micah 5:2 and then I read Matthew 2:1.
Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”Matthew 2:1
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea
in the days of Herod the king.
We read a few more prophecies and their fulfillments. We will do this each night for the rest of this week.
Our fun family activity for tonight? We did some decorating and drank root beer floats.
Here is a great resource for activities for Day 2 of Advent!
Advent: Week 1 / Day 1
Tonight we lit the first candle of our Advent wreath – The Prophecy Candle – and started the excitement of this blessed Season. I remember a few years ago mentioning to a friend that we celebrated Advent and they looked at me like, “huh?” and then later in the conversation said that they had never thought that Advent was something that protestants celebrated. I didn’t celebrate this as I was growing up, but in my search to add meaning and spiritual significance to our Christmas Celebrations, this was an obvious choice. Advent is a wonderful way to make the season meaningful and spiritual rather than commercial and “me-me-me” driven. Instead of celebrating on one day, we have an entire month of devotions and teachings about Jesus’ birth.
We also do something special each evening with the kids. Instead of just one day of gifts, we have several days of gifts, special outings, and family activities. Some are specifically related to that day’s devotion, some are not. (For example, tonight the kids each got to pick a gift out of a goodie bag – Abby got some Snow white lip gloss and Nathan got a Spiderman face mask. Totally unrelated, yes. I wish I would have done a bit better on kicking off our first night by doing something a little more relevant but hey, they thought it was cool. )
It is my hope to blog each day about what we did to give you some ideas to use this year or in the future.
So – Tonight was night one – week one. Tonight we lit the prophecy candle. We will spend this entire week’s devotions reading prophecies from the Old Testament and then reading the verses in the New Testament that show how Jesus fulfilled them.
When we lit the candle this evening, the kids were sincerely engaged and almost spellbound. There is something special about a candle lighting the dark. We talked about what a prophecy was and that hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth (and thousands in many cases), Old Testament prophets were inspired to write about a Savior that would one day come. They wrote with startling accuracy and Jesus fulfilled many of those promises when He came as a babe over 2000 years ago. We used the illustration of the candle lighting up the dark places in our house and compared it to Jesus shining the light of Truth in a dark world. When we go to look at Christmas lights (one of our activities that we will do this week), we will be reminded that Jesus is the Light of the World.
I am so thankful for the Light of Christ in my life. May His light shine on you this season as you reflect on the fact that you have been rescued from darkness into His glorious light – into the Kingdom of the Son whom He loves!
(After all that light talk, I can’t get this song out of my head.) Be blessed!
Giver of creation, bringer of salvation
Word of God, eternal life
Praise the Son of God
Promised One of Heaven
To bring us to your Kingdom
Rescued us from darkness
Praise the Son of God
Jesus, light of the world
Shine on us, shine on us
Word of life, spoken for love
Breathe on us, breathe on us
Light of the world, King Jesus
Darkness will obey your voice
Weakness will in you rejoice
You have bound the broken heart
Praise the Son of God
Jesus
You have shown your father’s heart
And to us you will impart
The holiness of all you are
Praise the Son of God
Shine, breathe, live through us
God’s beating heart, live through us
Light of the world, King Jesus
King Jesus, shine on us, shine on us
Advent starts THIS SUNDAY!
A few years ago we started a new family tradition in the Clark household. We don’t just celebrate Christmas Day – We celebrate the season of Advent.
For Christians, it is a beautiful way to spend the Season of Christmas. Instead of a frenzied rush of shopping or a “countdown” to a day that goes much too fast (and often without very much focus on the reason we’re supposed to celebrating), advent allows us to focus for an entire month on the blessed miracle of Christmas.
We have done this several ways in years past. Each year’s observance has included an Advent wreath and some form of daily devotion.
One year I made this snazzy magnetic Advent calender out of a cookie sheet. Each day corresponded with our daily devotional book (a gift from the nursery director at our church – I’m trying to find a link to post for you!!) We look forward to getting it each year. It’s similar to an “I Spy” book in that each day you read a devotional and look for the object of that day’s story. (A star, a shepherd, a baby, etc.)
(We still plan on using the book this year but the calendar didn’t store so well in the Christmas decorations.)
We also have a plush nativity set that the kids use each year to play with and “act out” the Christmas story.
Celebrating this way really helps me to focus on the joy of the season.
May your season of Advent be one of anticipation, peace, joy and hope!
Would you like to know more about celebrating Advent?
Here are some links for you:
The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope
Origins of the wreath
Making an advent wreath
Day by day devotions (The dates are off but the links are still GREAT!)
Decorating… in bits and pieces – AND – Advent links!
Welcome WFMWers!
Decorating a little bit at a time is helping me to stay centered this Advent season.
This year I am taking a much more laid back approach to decking the halls. I’m doing it in little chunks instead of all at once.
We’ve got the little miniature trees up. (One in Abby’s room – it’s PINK!), one in Nathan’s room, and one in the bathroom. The big colored lights are on the tree out front. The garland is hung on the mantle and the stockings are up.
The advent wreath has a prominent spot in the great room, the bench in the entryway is adorned with lights and holly berries and poinsettias.
Tomorrow: The Tree! This year we’ll opt for a real one. I sent the mammoth pre-lit tree to Goodwill last season after fooling with 7 new strings of lights that I had to add to it because the old ones had blown out.
Finally, I took a tip from Meredith and got down one of my favorite wedding gifts – a lovely crystal bowl -Â and filled it with fresh fruit. It’s sitting on our table doing double duty. (Once all that fruit gets eaten, I may replace that centerpiece with THIS ONE. Same concept though! And just as pretty!)
The Nativity is set up in the Dining Room and thanks to this more hassle free approach of decorating a little at a time, I’m more able to focus on The Reason why we’re decking the halls in the first place.
Here are some advent calendar links for you to celebrate this advent season with your family in a meaningful way!
My favorite gifts today were:
1. The fact that when Abby came into our room this morning, she FIRST wanted to do her Advent calender and put Baby Jesus on today’s little block.
2. The sound of abby’s “gasp” when we sent her into the kitchen to “see what time it is” and found HER VERY OWN KITCHEN! And then she came running back into our room to tell us all about it!
3. This picture of my boy in his diamond necklace, cell phone, and too tight shirt. 
Oh! And Bruce got me a pair of diamond earrings! 
Christmas Eve At The Stouffer Farm
What a wonderful time we had with Nana and Grandbud and the Stouffers in Centerville. We ate some amazing baked potato soup with all the fixins, read our advent scriptures and lit the candles, and of course, opened some gifts!!! (And Abby walked with her cousins in the cold and dark [with a new lantern for Uncle Burt] to check the chicken coop for eggs!)
The blessing of family – One of the greatest gifts of all.
Bruce and I then came home and wrapped gifts until about 11 pm. Our kids only got a few gifts each – I can only imagine what families who do tons of gifts on Christmas morning were doing tonight! When we went to bed, I couldn’t help but thinking that over half of the people on our street would be up until 3 am getting ready.
(I’m actually posting this early on Christmas Morning – awake before the sun, but not by Abby or Nathan – The baby in my belly had the hiccups and I couldn’t get back to sleep!!!)
Hope everyone has a joyful celebration tomorrow – and one that focuses on Christ’s Birth – The REASON that we celebrate.
3rd week of advent
I don’t think there’s a sight that could warm my heart more. A Daddy and his daughter, reading God’s word together by the light of the advent candles.
