Broadway Women's Ministry: Refresh: ADVENT...PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS by Paula Roten

Friday, November 29, 2013

ADVENT...PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS by Paula Roten

I've been Baptist all my life and a Christian since the age of nine. I've never experienced the teaching of Advent. But the thought of preparing my heart for celebrating Christmas appeals to me. It's entirely too easy to get caught up in "Christmas According to the World:" Santa, decorate, shop shop shop, cook cook cook, and then eat eat eat, indulge our children with so much that they have to clean out their rooms in order to put all the new stuff away. Not to mention feelings of frustration, irritability, busyness, and depression mixed in with tidings of great joy. My desire is to make my mind and heart Christ-centered.

For the last several years, I have intentionally focused on Christ during this season, reading the Christmas Story from the Bible in the gospels as well as reading books that point my heart in the right direction. Perhaps you, too, would like to intentionally block out the world and tune in to the anticipation and joy of Christ.

Here are some suggestions I made last year:
http://refreshbbc.blogspot.com/2012/11/adventpreparing-for-christmas.html

And here are my suggestions for this year. (Please realize I haven't read all these yet, so I can't completely vouch for their contents.)

Celebrating Christmas with Jesus: An Advent Devotional by Max Lucado (This one I read last year. It's Max Lucado, so you know it's great!)

In the Manger: 25 Inspirational Selections for Advent by Max Lucado

iRejoice: Advent Words for Growth, for Story, for Community by Lawson W. Murray

Once-A-Day 25 Days of Advent Devotional by Zondervan

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones (Kim Wright recommended this last year, saying the adults in the family enjoyed it as well as the children, so I bought it this year when it was half-price :)