Do you have a list? Yes and No. We've been doing this for three years, and building on it a little each year. Last year we maybe had 15 intentional sit down devotionals over the advent season, whenever the evening was free kind of deal. This year (now that I have my advent cabinet) I want to make it a daily event. I had to sit down and come up with 10 more "symbols" and I will still need to hunt down verses to compliment them.
How did you decide what to focus on? I have always been an intentional and meditative person (if you haven't noticed...) I am not going to just have a tree to have a tree, kwim? So I am going to use it as a platform to point us to true meaning and purpose. I just took the things that we already were using (for the most part) as our Christmas decor and searched out a spiritual truth that they can point us to.
How did you find the time to plan that all out? If you look at what Sanctuary Moment is doing for Advent here and here you will see how possible that is using even the most mundane objects from everyday existence. I am just so moved by her approach to advent this year, it's awesome. We on the other hand just use the regular ornaments of tree, star, lights, garland, angels, bells, apples and berries, balls, and any other ornaments I stumble across in the store that scream "symbolic!". =) The objects do the work of bringing to mind a scripture passage and then I just search for relevant passages on E-Sword and we're off.
The prep time and organization overwhelms me, or we're just not ready to do something like this this year. Maybe next year. I would encourage you to still hop on the celebration wagon, it's not too late! You don't have to do it every night, or have a special order, or do something pre-organized. Just take 10-15 minutes to sit down together, have four candles, light the first one, take something mundane from Christmas and talk about how it can remind us of something with deeper meaning. If you have a bible with a concordance you can just look up a verse that correlates in that same moment (or copy from me or someone else!) Here is another link to a Jesse Tree photo diary I scrounged up for Berry Girl the other day (all in one post) from Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.
How do you keep the little ones attentive and involved? Good question. Sometimes I just let them "do their thing" and P-Guy tries to keep them settled. But other times I get creative and get the little kids to actually DO something. Like when we are reading the verses (we read them multiple times in different translations, starting with the youngest reader, and then P-Guy reading last) everytime a key word comes up, like "everlasting" in the case of the wreath, I told the kids to listen for it and make circles in the air with their finger. This gives them something worth paying attention for, cause it can be hard with little boys in the mix. The girls sit all prim and proper, totally enchanted wiht the whole affair... my boys... total nuther story. =) But when I gave them something to keep busy with , The Hero (4) was actually very attentive. When other words that were related in any way with everlasting came up (never ending, always, forever, etc) he would make the circle symbol. It was pretty cool. I also ask the kids first what the symbol reminds THEM of. My oldest said that the wreath reminded her of the crown of thorns. Cool.
Do you do this every single night? Like I said, we have never done a full 25 days of advent devotionals before, just when our evenings were free we'd sit down and focus on one small thing, I'd quickly look up a few verses in my concordance or have them written down before hand, and over the last three years I've made a little collection of what we are now working with. I also don't buy ornaments that reflect our "interests" or generic things like skates, snowflakes, snowmen, but ones that somehow can serve to reflect a spiritual truth. This is the idea behind the Jesse tree. This year I do plan on us getting 25 full devotionals in, in an attempt to truly centre our hearts on the reason for the season. Like I said, I don't want to give God "the leftovers" after cards and gifts and food and parties are the main course... I want HIM to be the entree, main course, second and dessert, and the other things to be mere special touches that add to the ambience.
Where did you find the little items for your advent cabinet? I am seriously scrounging these things up from stuff we have around the house. I made the wreath from a little piece snipped off an old garland, cut the "tree" off a little branch ornament we had, same with the "branch". I'm going to need to get creative as we go, and I am open to switching these items up as I find things better suited, or even using a little drawing from the kids if can't think of anything that will fit size or sentiment wise. We have had fun hunting things down each day that will "work" for the cabinet.
Thanks for all the emails and questions. I thought this would be much easier than trying to reply to you all privately, I've been hard put to even get my pics and verses up with all the extra little things this wonderful month brings. I want to be baking... not blogging =)
2 comments:
What a lot of hard work you have done, but it is so worth it. I say, keep good records. You could possibly publish it some day. There is not a lot of advent helps out there. The one I put together for Grands is more fun. It is their mom and dad that read it to them and help them so I know they wouldn't go into to much depth....just the way they are right now in their lifes. Today when the 3 year old came over she showed me the socks that were in their box for todays gift (they don't get a gift every day) and she brought the camel pictures that they had colored yesterday. (o:
It's *really* not alot of hard work. It's pretty fly by the seat of my pants actually. And if you haven't noticed, the decorating goes reeeeaaaaaaly slooooooooooooooowly around here.
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