HOPE

The beginning of Advent has awoken with us this morning; this season of remembering, preparation, waiting, and anticipation. The remembering of Christ come and the preparation of Christ come. This week focuses on the promises of the Messiah to come, fulfilled in Christ, and now for his return.

There are many resources on the practice of Advent, some of which I shared last year, but I thought that I would share again some of our Advent plans. As we light our candles daily, we plan to memorize a verse specific to each week and we will also go through the story of Jesus beginning with the prophesy of his coming to his birth. We are trying to keep it quite simple and understandable for the girls so we are just going to tell a bit of the story each day. You also may notice that at the bottom, there is the word Action. The idea of this is that as we walk through Advent toward Christmas, there is a lot that focuses inward and we also want to intentionally look outward. With this week we want to look for ways that we can share hope with others. Honestly, we haven’t quite figured out what we will do.

Advent 2011

Week 1: Hope

           Verse:

Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.

            Song:

Oh Come Emmanuel

           Lighting:

Light the first Candle of Hope: “ Today is the first Sunday (week) of Advent, We light this candle to remind us of the hope that we have in Christ; the hope that he brings to the world.”

            Story:

We will begin the story of Jesus, reading a few verses a day. This week focuses on the promises and telling of his coming. (Using the pieces from our nativity to tell the story or drawing picture stories)

The Promise of Jesus: Hope

Sunday: Isaiah 7:14 (God’s Promise)

Monday: Isaiah 9:6-7 (Unto us a child….)

Tuesday: Luke 1:5, 11-14, 16, 18-19(An angel tells Zechariah of John)

Wednesday: Luke 1:26-38 (the angel Gabriel appears to Mary)

Matthew 1:18-25 (Joseph has a dream)

Thursday: Luke 1:39-45 (Mary visits Elizabeth)

Friday: Luke 1: 57-63 (the birth of John)

Saturday: Matthew 1:18-25 (Joseph has a dream)

Action:

Edit:Shopping for the Food Bank with the girls. We allowed them to choose the items with a bit of direction and had really good conversations about the needs that some in our community have and how thankful we are to be able to share right now. (In the future, we would like to be more closely aware of those who have needs (not just physical) in our community.) Aneliese loved filling her cart with the things that she felt would be good food for others and Cecily was delighted to copy her .

Emptying their little carts into the food bank.

May you be filled with hope as you walk through this first week of Advent. Please, share what you plan or would like to do this Advent season…or any thoughts you have really. I would love to hear all about it.