advent calendar

Ever since I read our friends' blog about using an advent calendar to read Scripture every day in the month of December leading up to Christmas as a way to prepare and focus their hearts on the real reason for the Christmas season...

AND ever since we were led to leave our "old" church a few months before the Easter holiday this past year and, especially during the time of finding another church to attend, the Lord led me to be more intentional in teaching our kids His Word at home by preparing Sunday School lessons of the events leading up to and including Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection which, in turn, REALLY prepared our hearts and minds like we've never experienced before for the Easter holiday...

AND ever since reflecting back to my own family's holiday traditions and remembering the times when my sisters and brother would help my Mom spread the red felt cloth on the mantle above the fireplace and then place the handpainted ceramic nativity set that my Grandma painted out on it but never putting Baby Jesus in place until Christmas Day...

I have desired to plan, prepare, and do an advent calendar with our family to start a new tradition in our home.

Although Owen and Letty are still a little young to totally understand the tradition, we are starting our new advent tradition this year. I originally wanted to make our own advent calendar but could never really get my hands on the exact materials that I wanted so I found a really cute box on Etsy.com. (It's a good thing we decided to buy an already-made calendar this year as I would have NEVER gotten the box done in time! Lately, there just seems to be too much to do with too little time to do it in.)

We have planned to do some sort of Christmas-related activity and read Scripture pertaining to Jesus' birth every day. We have also planned to take the entire 25 days to work with our kids to memorize John 3:16. Did you know that John 3:16 (NKJV) has exactly 25 words in the verse?!? Although I believe Ivy will memorize the verse before December 25th, our goal is to work on one word of the verse a day and understand the meaning to this verse! We pray that this advent tradition will provide us with a time to be together as a family and to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas - our Savior's birth!

We are really looking forward to starting and continuing this new family tradition. Perhaps, this is a tradition that our kids will carry on with their own children and that they will learn to reflect and focus on the real meaning of the holidays we celebrate.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
~John 3:16