Advent Week 2

I'll admit the first week of Advent didn't go exactly as I had planned.  We did most of our scheduled activities, but my mind was preoccupied - with hard things going on in my family and with planning for a party we hosted this weekend.  I'm not giving up.  I know there is space in this season for me to sit and enjoy just being with God.

This Advent, my church is focusing on listening to God.  I've thus far incorporated this into our Advent plan by encouraging the girls to journal their responses to a reflection question.  This week, we'll celebrate Thomas Merton's feast day with a bit of intentional silence and try to give ourselves room to listen to what God is saying.

Day 1
Think: Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Nicholas.  How did a real man inspire Santa Claus?  Many Christians are opposed to Santa Claus as an image of Christmas.  Can you see why?  Do you agree or disagree? Think about where you see God in St. Nicholas and in Santa Claus.
Read: About the real St. Nicholas here.
Do: Choose someone to bless with a stocking.  Fill it with homemade cookies, a handmade Christmas card, candy canes, etc.  Deliver it anonymously in honor of St. Nicholas.

Day 2
Think: What do you think of when you hear the word saint?  Does it call up a certain mental image? Do you know the difference between a saint and a Saint?
Read: About the difference between a saint and a Saint here.  (We will focus on the introduction and Anglican sections.)
Do: Look at several icons, especially ones of saints with scenes from their life surrounding them.  (You can find online examples here and here.)  Create your own icon style image of you as a saint with scenes from your life surrounding you.

Day 3
Think: About what it would have been like to be Mary.  Can you imagine being 14 years old and having an angel appear to you with such shocking news?
Read: Mary's Magnificat in Luke.
Do: Visit the zoo (weather permitting) or make haystacks cookies (we add a mini marshmallow to represent the baby Jesus).  Think about what it would have been like to travel on a donkey while pregnant and give birth surrounded by animals.  Imagine how it felt, sounded and smelled.


Day 4
Think: About what it would be like to be a monk or a nun.  Why do you think people choose this path for their life?  What appeals to you about it?  What doesn't
Read: About Thomas Merton, whose feast day is today.
Do: Spend 15 minutes alone in your room in silence.  Light a candle.  Pray for a little while and then just be quiet and listen.  Ask God to give you a heart to hear him and see whether anything happens.  This is not about you getting it right, but about you giving God space to talk to you.

Advent Week 1

I think it's lovely that our country celebrates Thanksgiving right before Advent.  While I doubt this was an intentional tie-in to the liturgical calendar when the holiday was established, I think it may be God's provision for a country whose material blessings stand firmly in the way of seeing our need for God.  For this reason, we're going to start our Advent with a natural segue from Thanksgiving.

Day 1

Think:  How does Thanksgiving prepare our hearts for Christmas?
Read: The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L'Engle
Do: Make a care package for someone you are thankful for.  Include a Bible verse or other words of encouragement, something you have made (art or a baked good) and anything else you want.  This hits all five love languages: you are serving the person by making them a care package, satisfying their need for touch by sending them a physical package (and hand delivering it when possible), encouraging them with words, spending your time on them and giving them a gift.

Day 2

Think: Why does Christmas come during the winter?  What can we learn from this?
Read: In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti (we will read this aloud together).  After reading the poem, we'll listen to the Shawn Colvin version of the song.
Do: Psalm 119:76 tells us that God's unfailing love will be our comfort.  Bleak days make us long for comfort.  Make hot chocolate mix to give to others for comfort on a day when they need it.

Day 3

Think: How does God use us to give his gifts to others?
Read: The story behind the creation of Silent Night and The Legend of the Fourth King.  I read The Legend of the Fourth King for the first time yesterday and loved it.  I'm not sure how I've gone this many years without reading this lovely book, but it was touching, thought-provoking and a great story of what it might have been like to have been one of the Magi.
Do: Silent Night was a gift not just to one congregation on one night, but to many people for years to come.  The magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus.  Make homemade marshmallows to go with the hot chocolate mix you made yesterday.

Day 4

Think: December 2 is the feast day of Isaiah.
Read: Isaiah 43.  Then re-read 43:1.  Make a list of the names God has for you.  On a separate page, list the names of your family members.  List a few other names you have for each of your family members.
Do: Cut strips of construction paper or craft paper.  Put some of the names of God on the strips and make a paper chain.  Keep the extra strips and add to the chain as you go through Advent and learn about other names of God.

My daughters have a Tuesday tutorial that will meet the first two Tuesdays of Advent, so we'll start with four day weeks on our Advent plan.  I offer this as both explanation and encouragement.  If you're like me, I'm trying desperately to make Advent a spiritual, not commercial, journey for my family.  But we still have other obligations (and lots of them).  My hope is that by starting small, we can carve out just parts of our days to really focus on what matters.  Because my hope is that if we take just nuggets of time, God will call those lessons to our minds and the minds of our children.

I want to encourage you to do only the portions of this Advent plan that sound fun to you.  If it feels like a burden, it will be a burden.  If your children are young, pick pictures books to read instead of a 19th century poem and a 20th century folk tale.  Do what works for your family.  (And be sure to let me know what works because I might want to borrow your idea!)

May you have a Blessed Advent!

Advent Journal

Celtic Advent starts today - allowing a full 40 days of preparation, just as Lent gives us 40 days to fast, pray and await the celebration of Easter.  Here's what Celtic Daily Prayer says about Advent:

Advent is traditionally a time of preparation for Christmas.  It is said that the door to the stable where the Christ-child has been born is very low - and only those who kneel find access.  Being ready for Christmas should mean that our thoughts are focused not just on letters, cards and presents, but on repentance, humbling and interior housecleaning... This involves removing any boulders that stand in the way, and filling in any potholes.  The boulders are the things we have done that we should not have done; the potholes are the things we have failed to do which we obviously should have done.  The more, as individuals, family or congregation, we are focused in this way, the less we will be overwhelmed by the commercialization of Christmas.

I spent some time yesterday purchasing and preparing Advent Journals for myself and my daughters.  Maybe you think journals are for writing your thoughts or feelings.  Maybe you read "journal" and think "a book that will lay beside my bed and convict me when I don't write in it every day."  While I've found in recent years that I love to write, I've never been a big journal-keeper.  I think one reason for this is that I felt like a failure if I didn't journal every day.  I'd like to encourage you to throw that concept of journaling into your mental trash can.

A journal can be so much more.  Let it be a place to:

• Record the ways you are preparing your heart, your home, your community for Advent
• Keep your favorite Christmas cards of the year
• Remind yourself of the little gifts that come your way every day of Advent
• Look for the joy, peace and hope that Advent is about
• Transcribe sweet or funny sayings from your children
• Draw
• Sketch
• Paint
• Write
• Collage
• Pray

I'll be encouraging my daughters to keep a record of our Advent in their Advent journals.  I'll sometimes ask them to write an essay or personal response to something we've studied together.  I'll have them record the recipe for St. Lucia bread, who St. Nicholas really was and when The Nutcracker was first performed.  Their first assignment for their journals will be to write about how Thanksgiving helps to prepare our hearts for Christmas.

I wanted my journal to be all mine - not just an off the shelf purchase.  So I bought a composition notebook and covered it front and back in Christmas colors.  My daughters weren't interested in doing this, so they have comp books with graphics and words about peace and love.  I'm slowly learning to let my children take the lead in their own creating.  If they want to collage, great.  If not, that's fine, too.  That doesn't mean I shouldn't do what my heart is telling me to do.  It just means I don't have to put my own desires onto them.

Whether you're crafty or not, a fan of journaling or hate to hold a pen, think about giving an Advent journal a try.

Advent Series

How intentional are you about Advent?  Do you take time to stop, breathe and pray during a season when the world tells you to go, buy, do?  As a mom of three whose birthday falls in December, I'll be the first to admit that Advent can be crazy.  But I'm convinced it doesn't have to be that way.

So I've started planning early this year:

• Instead of a Christmas card, we'll continue a tradition started a few years ago and mail a Thanksgiving card and letter.  
• My semi-annual birthday party will be held the weekend before my birthday, when we have fewer Nutcracker conflicts.  
• The homeschool schedule will be cleared of history, science and grammar.  We'll carry on with math and learn about the feast day of Isaiah and saints like Thomas Merton, St. Nicholas, St. Lucia and Our Lady of Guadalupe.  We'll wrap up auto-biographies and biographies for literature, and spend time reading The Gift of the Magi, Kringle, The Glorious Impossible and other words that help focus our thoughts and minds on Advent.
• Catalogs are pouring into our home.  Many of them go straight into the recycling, but this year I'm holding on to ones from Soles 4 Souls, The Heifer Project and Samaritan's Purse.  My daughters will get a gift allotment each week of Advent and then they'll choose an organization (or two) to bless.

I'm hopeful that advance planning and a willing heart will make this an Advent to remember.  Even more importantly, I hope this will be an Advent that lays a foundation for building future Decembers and everyday faith.  I hope this Advent will be one that keeps us focused on others and eagerly anticipating not just the celebration of Christ's birth, but his return.

Would you like to join us?  Many of the activities we're doing are easily adaptable for your homeschooled children, your preschoolers or as after school activities for school aged children.  In the past Fun Jar has been largely about getting your children out of the house during the heat of summer.  For Advent, it will be about using the time you have with your children during this season to turn their hearts (and your own) toward Christ.  You can join us if you live in Nashville.  Or anywhere else.  For families that are local, we may have an opportunity or two to get together.  Stay tuned.  And let me know if you're interested.

Here's my plan:  I'll post our Advent plan the Friday before each week of Advent.  Use what you want.  Add your own twists.  Participate only on the days that work for you.  Do Tuesday's activity on Thursday.  This experiment is not about following the rules.  It's about listening to your heart.