Preparing for Him

Trimming the tree, stringing white lights, wrapping presents, baking cookies...Christmas is upon us. We've entered the season of preparation. What I love most about this time of year is Advent and the time spent preparing our hearts for the birth of our Savior.

As we begin this first week of Advent, I'm reminded that how we prepare as a family impacts the way my children understand and think about Christmas. While our children do receive Santa gifts and take part in many of the commercialized aspects of Christmas, we're dedicating this Advent season to preparing their hearts for the birth of baby Jesus and to feel joy in giving rather than receiving.

Here's a look at our Advent preparations this year...

OUR JESSE TREE

The Advent Jesse Tree has become a yearly tradition for our family. The Jesse Tree tradition began as a family tree for Jesus and originates from Isaiah 11:1 which says, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse." There is an ornament for each day of December through Christmas Day that depicts a story from biblical history. For each symbol, there are correlating Old and New Testament Scriptures. From the story of creation to the story of the wise men following a star, each symbol was chosen to help tell the story of God's plan to bring us back to Him through Jesus. The Jesse Tree displays the story of the coming of Christ, carved out through history, by the sovereign hand of God.

Each morning, the kids will hang the ornament on the tree and together we'll read the scripture verses and retell the story associated with the symbol on the ornament. I love that these are mostly stories that the kids are already familiar with and that Sophia gets excited about re-telling in her own way.

25 RANDOM ACTS OF CHRISTMAS KINDNESS

Sophia has such a big heart. She was my side kick during the Operation Christmas Child collection and she loved helping. The social worker in me wants to continue to help my kids understand the importance of serving others and being helpers in our community. This specific Advent preparation appeals to the idea of helping the kids feel joy in giving to and doing for others instead of focusing solely on the gifts they hope to receive this Christmas.

Elfie (our creepy little Elf on a Shelf guy) has become a kindness elf this year. Each morning, the kids will find a new Random Act of Kindness note on Elfie. Sophia came up with most of them on her own. They include (mostly) simple and inexpensive or free things the kids can take charge of doing themselves. Holding the door for kids at school, baking cookies for the senior center, bringing hot chocolate to the crossing guard, leaving candy canes on cars in the parking lot, donating old toys, picking out food to give to the food pantry...just to name a few of Sophia's ideas. Sophia is so excited to get started!

A BOOK-A-DAY ADVENT CALENDAR

Each night through Christmas the kids will open one new book at bedtime. This is in keeping more with the traditional Advent calendar approach. Most of the books tell of the true message of Christmas while some are classics that the kids will simply enjoy. Thanks to those school Scholastic book orders this advent calendar approach actually was rather inexpensive and we'll be able to put the books away and use them again next year if we choose.

And so the preparing begins....

With small children, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of mainstream Christmas. The wish lists and presents, letters and visits to Santa, the oversized inflatable lawn ornaments & chocolate-filled advent calendars. This year, I encourage you to be intentional in your own Advent preparations. Help your children experience the true joy this Christmas and let the love of our Savior Jesus fill their hearts.