Happy Monday!
Christmas is coming! That I know. I also know that between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the time just seems to fly by and people are in a fury of gift-buying, holiday planning, travel going, and the like… and seem to find themselves the day before Christmas still in a busy frenzy to get it all done.
I don’t want that this year. I don’t want that any year. My husband and I are determined to not let Christmas sneak up on us. We want our hearts, and our children’s hearts, to always be prepared for Christmas. To be fully aware and fully in awe of the birth of our savior Jesus, every single Christmas. We pray that as we begin to build in our traditions to prepare for Christmas, that our children would naturally fall into this preparing, too.
One way we are trying to stay proactive this Christmas season is by doing an advent together as husband and wife. We will be reading Christmas stories throughout the month with C too, but we want to build a strong foundation as husband and wife, and add in our children when they show genuine interest on their own. Last year Dakota and I did an advent e-book together by John Piper and several other contributing authors. We enjoyed how the advent caused us to continually come back to the true meaning of Christmas each day, despite all the tree decorating, present wrapping, Christmas movies and music, gift giving and receiving and so on. Now I should clarify, all of those things are not bad… but they can cause a fogginess over the true meaning of Christmas if we aren’t aware of the time and efforts we are spending on all of those things rather than focusing on the awe and wonder of the humble birth of our Savior, born of a virgin, God made flesh, Emmanuel. This is the true meaning of Christmas and THIS is the focus we want to have always for our children, family, friends, whomever to see. We want to be a beacon of light that points to Christ during this holiday.
So, this year we have chosen to do a different advent together- we will be reading Come Let Us Adore Him, by Paul David Tripp. This Devotional begins on December 1st! If you’re looking for a devotional to do on your own, with a friend, with your boyfriend, or with your husband… this might be a great option for you! The reading isn’t long, and there is a short paragraph called “For Parents and Children” at the end of every daily devotional that you could do with your children if they are old enough or leave out all together if you do not have children yet. Don’t let this Christmas sneak up on you. Join me in preparing your heart all month long at the anticipation and joy that is wrapped in the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!
We’ll also be reading individually this book by Timothy Keller, one of our favorite Christian authors, Hidden Christmas! Another great read to prepare your hearts for Christmas.
Here is the link to shop for the Advent Devotional again . If you end up purchasing and reading it for advent… I would love to hear your thoughts on it! This will be our first time reading it too, so I am eager to see how we like it!
Grace and Peace, friends!
-Courtney
withlovefromcourtney.com 