I love Christmas. Really, I do. The music, the food, the decorations - it's all my favorite! But in my love for the season I often find myself exhausted and overcommitted to all the holiday parties, cookie exchanges and general merriment. After a weekend of putting up all my decorations and baking angel cookies for an event later this week, I'm already worn out - and it's only December 1st! But all that's not really what Christmas is all about, is it? Advent is the coming of something extremely important. And I'm fairly certain we would all say that the birth of Jesus is that important thing. But more often we treat the parties and gifts and meals as the "extremely important" and we push the real reason we celebrate to the back of our minds. Sure we say, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!" and we might even sing a carol during family worship, but can we honestly say we are meditating on the King of Kings coming to earth as a baby to save a wretch like myself?
When I first started thinking about this post, I had several ideas. And there are so many great ways to celebrate advent in our homes, but I think a better question for myself is how do I prepare my heart for celebrating advent? It doesn't matter how much effort I put into reading scripture to my kids or creating a Jesse Tree, if my heart isn't seeking to bring God glory in this season, it's worthless. It's not that God won't work through our imperfect attempts, thankfully He faithfully uses my imperfections as a mother all the time to teach my children. But how much more could I reflect His love if I was actually meditating on the meaning and purpose of Christmas myself? Or maybe I'd rather just continue to spend my month running around like a chicken with it's head cut off?
Here are a few suggestions for resources on advent:
Why The God-Man by Anselm
My question, posed mainly to myself, is what are you doing to prepare your heart for this season?
When I saw the title of your post on my blogroll, I came over immediately to see who was "too busy for Advent!" I should've known you were being ironic! But I totally agree with you--it can be easy, if we let it, to lose the purpose of this glorious season in the busyness of it all. We started our Advent activities this morning and I was humbled as I tried to explain to my daughter how amazing it was that God not only sent his Son to live and die for us, but that He sent Jesus as a defenseless baby to live not with a king but with an ordinary man and wife. Gives me chills just thinking about it! Two songs that always help me get back in the Advent frame of mind: "Welcome to Our World" and "Mary, Did You Know?" :) Thanks for being honest about something many of us, as Christian women and Mommys, struggle with at this time of year!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Alicia ... this is my theme this year as well. God has just covered me with His promise in Psalm 46:10 ... "BE STILL & KNOW THAT I AM GOD." My desperate desire is to be still before Him throughout this hectic season. And I am learning that I can be still even in the midst of chaos when my heart is focused on Him.
ReplyDeleteA good post -are we too busy for the season is a good question.
ReplyDeletevickie