An Advent update

We have truly been enjoying our Advent celebration. It's become a natural part of our evenings, and the boys have gotten better at sitting and listening to the scripture and stories. Heath and I have even been taking time after the boys are in bed to discuss the scripture further and do some more digging into the Word. It really has been a wonderful tool to keep the season devoted to our King. Here's a few pictures I've taken throughout the past week.

On the third night we read about Zechariah. We explained to the boys that the angel told him he was going to have a son. We talked to them about John, and how we was to be a prophet that told people about Jesus coming. We also talked about how Zechariah's doubt caused God to make him unable to speak.

It was a fun ornament to make because Zechariah's mouth was a bubble from some bubble wrap. After we had his "mouth" glued on, we talked about how God allowed him to speak again after John was born, and then we popped the bubble. The boys loved it!

Here's the clue and our two Zechariah's with "popped" mouths. We ended the night talking to the boys about listening to God and believing. When we studied Mary a few days later, we contrasted her belief to Zechariah's doubt. 

Here's B's Mary ornament (along with the crown ornament). When we read about Mary in the book of Luke, we talked to Cash and B about how an angel came to her and she believed what was told to her about conceiving and giving birth to baby Jesus.

Here's Cash's Mary ornament. Again, all these ornaments are super easy to make. I will have to say that putting the materials in the bags before Advent started was a wise thing to do. I can imagine if I had to do this day to day, it wouldn't have gotten done, at least not so smoothly. Taking the time at the beginning to get everything ready helped us all to concentrate and enjoy each lesson.

In between Zechariah and Mary we talked about Gabriel and made an angel ornament. The next day, Cash and I got into an interesting conversation as to whether angels are peoples or animals. It's challenging, but fun, to see how Cash is really starting to listen, grasp details and start asking questions about what he's learning. It's really making me see how important it is and will continue to be that Heath and I stay in the Word so that we will have the wisdom to guide him correctly.