Advent

     When I was young, we celebrated Advent every year. I grew up in the Lutheran church and this was part of the tradition in the church. I can honestly say that though I enjoyed lighting the candles every year and opening the windows on our Advent calender to sing the songs aloud, I missed the point of the season often. Advent means "Coming" in Latin and is the season when Christians celebrate and anticipate the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus. I love this because in our ever-increasingly western world, we have completely lost the true meaning of the season. Our lives are busy with what we want and giving gifts to friends and family, etc. This advent I want to fight to keep my focus on the reason for this season :)

     Now that I am married and we have a 13 year old and 8 month old, this seems like as good a time as any to start up a family tradition :) . Casey loved the idea, Asher just smiled at us as we read the first week's devotional, so it's a win. After searching around, I found the following two resources for our family this year. If you are looking for an Advent plan, here's the one we are using from The Village Church.  Also, last year we got Behold the Lamb of God musical by Andrew Peterson and this year Russ Ramsey came out with a book by the same name.

The book actually has 25 daily readings so you could in essence start on the 1st of December. We are doing this as a supplement to our weekly family devotionals in the Advent season. May the love and peace of Christ fill your hearts and homes this Advent season.