Our advent activities!! Day 1

Well, Advent actually began this past Sunday, but I was out of town and totally unorganized at home. As we go through our month, though, I would like to share what we are doing. I will try to post in the morning or night before so that you may use this as a guide for you if you don't know what to do this year.

First, we are reading a book called Jotham's Journey. It is the first in a series of three books. You can find them here at Amazon.com. I won't post on this each day. Just know they are WONDERFUL books and that we will be reading in it each day.

Today, we made our devotional countdown chain that I found here (click on sentence). Each day, we will take off a loop, read the scripture on it, sing a song or two, and do an activity.

Today:

We discussed how the Bible is split into the Old and New Testaments. We talked about how in the Old testament many people were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the King spoken about in the Bible. The Old Testament foretold the birth of God's chosen King and Savior. The New Testament is the fulfilling of the prophesies and shows Jesus' ministry and love for us.

We read Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6-7.

We then sang Jesus Loves Me.

Next we set up our Nativity and decorated for Christmas. 

Finally, we are also starting a Jesse Tree. The devotions I am using are found here, and the pictures, which I printed and laminated to hang on our tree, are found here. Today, we are actually catching up from Nov. 28 until today. I am going to type an abbreviated version here this time because of the amount. (You may need to edit as you read these to make them match your specific theology.)

Nov. 28
Dove = God's creation
Isaiah 11:1-10 (story of Jesse)
1 Samuel 16:1-13 (David)
Jesse is the father of David, beginning a line of descendants that will lead to Jesus, the Messiah.

Nov. 29
Apple = original sin
Genesis 2:4-3:24

Nov. 30
Ark = This symbol reminds us that although God was displeased with the wickedness of the people, he also sees the best in us and renews his covenant with us through forgiveness and mercy.
Genesis 6:11-22, 7:1-8:22

Dec. 1
Field of stars = God's promise to Abraham
Genesis 12:1-7, 15:1-6

I hope that no matter how you choose to celebrate this Advent season, you will draw your family close and remember God's love for each of you!!!