Mid-month Mention: Preparing for Advent

 

I'm not a strict Advent observer. Most years, I merely purchased the $1-1.50 chocolate Advent calendars available at Aldi. My boys loved eating their tiny dose of chocolate first thing in the morning, as we counted down the days until Christmas. I know there are families who make a far bigger production of it (reading a book of the Bible as they count down days, opening a new religious picture book each day for the first 2 dozen days of December, reading specific Advent devotionals). This year, I want to invest time each day in prayer, to count down the days until we celebrate Christ's birth.

With only one left at home (and a senior in high school, at that), I don't foresee this being a family activity. Still, I wanted to take time in mid-November to offer some suggestions of things I found online to aid in my approach to this coming Advent season.

1) Free Advent Templates - I discovered a website called Praying in Color. You can find a variety of Advent calendar templates as you contemplate ways to celebrate anticipatory days in December. I already pray daily for Facebook friends as a continuance of my 2023 Facebook Prayer Project. Thus, I may select an Advent-related word to focus on. I've also printed one of the blank block ones off for Sean and Claire to see if they want to come up with a calendar of activities.

2) Specific Daily Prayers - Perhaps I'll choose a specific prayer for each of the 24 preliminary days. The following 5 blogs offer prayers I might use:

• One Prayer a Day blog by Bob Hostetler - This is a blog I have followed sporadically for a long time now. Bob is a great guy, an author friend, and a man of prayer. His daily prayer blog is well worth following even outside of the advent season. (My favorite of his many books is The Bard and the Bible, recently re-released as The Shakespeare Devotional - in case you might be searching for an outstanding daily devotional as we approach a new year. Great Christmas gift idea!) 
• Time With Our Creator blog - Although this blog doesn't seem current (last post in 2023), I appreciated the most recent post with a prayer for casting all our anxieties on the Lord. How thrilling to see a Salvation Army song referenced in the post (Lt. Col. E. H. Joy's "All Your Anxiety"): "Is there a heart o'erbound by sorrow? Is there a life weighed down by care? Come to the cross, each burden bearing; All your anxiety - leave it there. All your anxiety, all your care, Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there, Never a burden He cannot bear, Never a friend like Jesus!" - visit this Hymnary page for the music and lyrics to this beautiful song. What a blessed reminder that I can leave my many current burdens at the feet of our Savior!
• Prayer-coach blog by Kevin Shorter - With a variety of prayer tips and helps, this blog offers several prayer lists that I might use (I may send this list of things to pray for addicted loved ones to my son).
• Prayer and Possibilities blog by Kathryn Shirey - Kathryn provides another idea: writing daily letters to God
• The Daily Prayer blog - This blog, offering a thought and a prayer, has been available as long as my blog (both started in 2008). Daily is a misnomer, as it seems the prayers are over several days, but I think they are beneficial and might be useful in this endeavor.