(During the week, Candice Roten Duffy is a stay at home mother of four children (ages 8, 6, 3, and 21 months), and on weekends she works as a pediatric oncology nurse at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She says she has the best of both worlds. Candice will be writing a series about helping children focus on the true meaning of Christmas.)
It’s that time of year…Christmas. A time when the world bombards us with things we have to have, recipes we must make, parties we should host or attend, and before we know it, our calendar for December is so full, we find ourselves forgetting to place priority on the whole reason we celebrate anyway: CHRIST. My children see me cram as much “fun” into the month as possible, but do they see me forgo some of those things so that as a family we can purposefully make time to focus on what really matters? On that which is eternal? Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” That is what I desire for my children. To instill in them the truth, to ingrain it into their hearts and minds so that when Brian and I are finished raising them, when they go off into a world that tells them to do whatever makes them happy, they will be able to stand firm and live a life based on eternity in mind.
This year I looked at several advent activities for children and finally settled on one particular e-book that I purchased. For 24 days we will be reading a passage of scripture and making an ornament to go along with it. I love this because it gets my children involved. They will be making a visual reminder of what we read in the Bible that day. You can then hang it on a special tree, or (like us) whatever is available in the house. We have a column I put garland on. We are going to put ours there. That way it is right in the middle of our living area where we pass it countless times each day. At the end of the 24 days, we will have learned the entire Christmas story, but not just that the baby came; he grew (just as our children are growing) specifically for one purpose: He would die to take on our sin and make us clean and holy in His sight, thereby saving us from an eternity without Him. Christmas is a reminder and celebration that Christ loves us so much He willingly died and conquered death for us!! The ornaments do not have to be fancy or expensive. In fact, I tend to be an OCD crafty person so God really convicted me on this point. The purpose isn’t to have perfect looking ornaments - it is to teach my children. You can alter the ornaments to accommodate what you have around your house as long as the message is the same. I took a day to write down what I had on hand, what I could alter, and what I needed. I then went to Hobby Lobby (with coupon in hand) and got what I still needed. I am really looking forward to starting! We will be doing ours in the afternoon after my son Eli gets home from school. Each day the goal will be (barring anything unforeseen-you never know with a houseful of kids-ha!) to post what we did that day and hopefully how my children are responding. Feel free to do it along with us! God promises us that his word never returns void (Isaiah 55:11), so I am expecting great and wonderful things this month (John 5:20)!!
My prayer is that this holiday season (and in future ones), we will continually have Christ in the forefront of our minds, that our action and attitudes will show evidence of that. Specifically, I am praying that God will use this activity to call my children to Him. What better time than Christmas for my children to hear God’s still, small voice and respond to it?
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