Hello December 1st!
Hello 28 degrees when I woke up this morning!
Chilly!!!!
With today being December 1st, the Advent Calendar begins.
For the church, Advent started this past Sunday, November 28th.
So my question is to you..
what are your family traditions when it comes to Advent?
We are starting a couple of new traditions this year.
The first one being...
The Advent Wreath
We made one with our cell group this week!
First step, pick up greenery at Pike's!
{Or cut things out of your yard!}
Then it was a round styrofoam disk
It took me awhile to get this just right-
but the key is to put them in at a
"laying down" angle.
Thanks Lindsey for that tip!
Then I added holly berrys
and magnolia leaves
Each family wreath turned out different,
yet beautiful!
{Mine had a hard time holding up the candles....}
So....
I came home and filled in the center with burlap,
hot glued those candles in
and glued on a burlap border.
Love that little glue gun!
We found these readings and will be doing them each Sunday
I also found a daily advent reading which started this past Sunday:
We are incorporating the traditional Advent Calendar
which starts December 1st
with the daily Scripture readings.
I've taken each day and written the daily Scriptures on them.
{the goal will be to have these hanging from our fireplace by this weekend--
we are so far behind on decorating. I still have pumpkins on my front porch.
I should probably remove those eh?}
Next year, when Jude is a little older,
I'd like to add activities to the Advent Calendar
For now, we'll concentrate on our little
family being in the Word together.
And here is Day....
{The daily readings started this past Sunday, as it
follows the Christian Calendar. If you want to do some catch up reading, click here.}
The Epistle Lesson
2 Peter 3:11-18
"Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
The Gospel Lesson
Matt 21:33-46
"Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
"'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him,they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet."
**
So my question to you is, how do you prepare
during this season of Advent?
{My mother-in-law has written some amazing posts already this week. And my Senior Pastor from Richmond Hill has written an amazing series. I encourage you take the time and visit both of their blogs!}
Labels: advent, Christmas
