One little purchase...

  A couple of months ago I was in Dollar Tree and picked up a little book titled "25 Days, 26 Ways To Make This Your Best Christmas Ever by author Ace Collins I thought it looked cute and was interested in the few pages I thumbed through in the store.  The more I have read of it the more I really want to share it with everyone.  I even emailed the author to make sure it was ok to reference the book.  I don't expect my blog to go viral, but still, don't need to end up in some plagiarism lawsuit.lol 
   I have always loved Christmas and being raised in a Christian home I always knew the "reason for the season".  However, there is a big difference in knowing and really grasping and even celebrating it. Christmas changed for me a couple of years ago after attending a Chris Tomlin concert and heard him sing carols to a slower tempo, making it easier to really understand the lyrics.  I will share more about that in a later post (it's one of the "days").
  This is not going to match up exactly with the day of the month, and I may have to squeeze a couple in together.  The important thing to me was to encourage myself and others to really rediscover Christmas and make it what it should be...a time to reflect and worship the One that it is all about.

 

Day One~Rediscovering Advent

  I have to say that Advent is something I had not heard much about until I started attending Second Baptist Church.  I had seen the cute calendars with pockets for treats and always thought that was just a really fun way to countdown to Christmas.  

  In the beginning Advent started on the Sunday closest to November 30th and ran through Christmas Eve.  The church was setting aside this time to reflect of the coming of Jesus and what it meant to them and to the individual.  It is a time of personal growth and reflection.  So how did we not only lose the meaning but fall away from teaching advent altogether?  The author explains that before 1940 most people didn't even think about Christmas until around December 20th, let alone start shopping for it.  During World War II President Roosevelt asked people to shop early and have their gifts mailed no later than the first week of December so that those overseas would be sure to receive their packages by Christmas.  So, it was in 1942 that the shopping and rushing began before Thanksgiving.  The author says that after the war ended four years later, the "mold had been cast". The Christmas shopping season was now several weeks early and the tradition of Advent was lost.
  I am so happy to attend a church now that recognizes Advent, but it won't do a lot of good for me to just think of it on Sundays as we light the pretty candles.  I need to be reflecting every day on what it means that God sent his son into the world, what it means to have Jesus in my world, and what hope I have in knowing he will return and make everything right.
 
  At the end of each chapter the author shares a "Shortcut to the Spirit of the Season".  On day one it is this:  The book of Luke has 24 chapters.  Read one chapter a day during December, using this book as a biblical Advent calendar that puts your focus on the birth, life, and promise of Christ.