Its funny to read the introduction to my last post and then to introduce this post, it seems very contradicting. Growing up, in an effort to help us prepare for Christmas and to fully embrace the Advent season we didn’t decorate until days before Christmas. We didn’t get our tree until the 20th (sometimes later), and didn’t decorate it until the 22nd or 23rd. Sure we bought gifts, we wrapped them, but decorating our house, putting the nativity up all waited until days before Christmas day in order to help us keep our heads in an Advent mindset.
I have to say I am so grateful for this mindset, and as I have gotten older and have started to raise my own family it has allowed me to implement some of this into my own family.
I think one of the hardest things about Advent is how we prepare our homes for Advent. It is hard to see the connection between Advent and our homes. But in this I don’t just mean the walls that hold up the building that shelters us, but I meant the home of your family, the home of your community, the home of your friendships.
As women, we are nurturers (I may have just made that word up), we are the cleaners, we are the caretakers. As I have grown older and as each Advent rolls around I try to focus on Mary and her time carrying our dear Lord and how she prepared to welcome Him into her home, her life, her friendships, her everything. Afterall, that is what a home is, isn’t it, our lives?
Mary had to flip her whole life around to welcome Jesus into her life and into her home. She definitely wasn’t planning to get pregnant out of wedlock and raise the Savior of the world, yet she very willingly said, “yes.”
You see her yes, allowed her to prepare for her Son to be born. Her yes allowed her to prepare her home. How are we preparing to welcome the Lord into our homes? Into our friendships? Into our relationships? Are we all getting caught up with the decorating, the gift wrapping and the cookie decorating? Are we caught up in the holiday craze that our yes will only last to Christmas day?
Our “yes” has to be more than a yes just for the advent season. But a yes for everything we do. When we say “yes” this Advent season, ‘yes’ to allowing the Lord to grow in us this Advent season as we prepare to welcome him. Just as Mary said Yes, we are called to let the Lord grow in our homes, in our friendships and relationships, and our lives. We need to allow him to grow in us and prepare that space in our lives for his coming.
So are your homes ready for the Lord? Or are they completely taken over by the holiday craze. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the first people to decorate my homes and start preparing for Christmas in October-but Christmas is more than the gifts and Christmas lights. I fully intend this Christmas season to let the Lord grow in my home, in my relationship with my husband and children, and in my friendships so that my home is ready for the birth of Christ.
How are your “homes” prepared for Advent? Did you start decorating the first chance you could? Or did you take a step back and realize that our “homes” need a little more prep to welcome the Lord into.
- What can you change, to say “yes” just as Mary day to better prepare for the Lord’s coming
This year's study journal is broken into 4 parts.
To view each, please scroll to the middle of the above link.