Thursday, December 1, 2011

Advent: Week 1 - Prophecy Day 1

Our Thanksgiving Tree turned Advent Tree! Notice our first ornament on it.

Advent Tree Ornament - Bible
  • Click here to download my ornaments to print out yourself.
  • If you have an advent wreath, light one candle while your do your Bible reading (we read it in the morning without the candle and then light the candle when we read it again at night with daddy.)

Our simple gathering of Advent candles.  I know they're supposed to be certain colors, but I just used what I had =)


Bible Reading - 2 Peter 1:19-21
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Discussion -
  • What is the prophetic word?  
    • Explain how the Old Testament was written before Jesus was born and it looks forward to Christ.
  • What did they need to pay attention to?
    • The prophetic word (the Old Testament)
  • Who wrote the Bible
    • Man physically wrote the Bible.
  •  Did the men write whatever they wanted to write?
    • No, they wrote what the Holy Spirit guided them to write.

Memory Verse - Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.

Vocab Words -
  1. Prophet: a person who speaks for God (in this case, prophesying the coming of Christ.)
  2. Immanuel (Emmanuel): God with us, referring to Jesus.
  3. Bear: to bring forth or give birth
    • I wasn't going to stress this part, but Trevor asked, so we talked about it =)
    • We recounted how a baby grows in the mommy's belly and then comes out.  The 'coming out' is the bearing! 

Song - Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


Explaining the song to a 3 year old:

Come Jesus and save Israel! They are sad and lonely, waiting for Jesus.  Be happy, Israel!  Jesus will come to you!


Activity - Finding the Light in the Darkness

  • Go into a room, close the door, turn off any large lights/lamps, and shut the windows.
  • Have your child(ren) see what lights they can see in the darkenss.
    • Trevor spotted the light coming in at the very top of the window, his nightlight, his alarm clock, the tiny light on the baby monitor, the light coming in from the bottom of the door, and the light coming in from the heater grate.
  • Talk about how easy it is to see these light sources in the dark and how it's easy to pay attention to them.
    • Relate this to the Bible reading from today 'to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.'
    •  Teach them that we need to pay attention to the Bible (read it, listen to it, obey it, etc.) as much as we pay attention to a light shining in the darkness.
  • If you want to bring early science into it you can do Sid the Science Kid's Light Scavenger Hunt
    • Talk about where light comes from (the sun, electricity, batteries, etc.)

 For printable advent ornaments and the list of verses for the whole month, click here.  For all of this weeks activities, click here.


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2 comments:

  1. I love the way you provide tips for presentation of the material to a little one, without sacrificing the beauty of the devotion. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Michelle. I try hard not to dumb things down, but I still definitely acknowledge that a 3yo isn't going to understand a lot of things =)

    ReplyDelete

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