A Joyous Moment

As I watched my children complete their crafts for their advent calendars, I sat back and watched and enjoyed them. It was a moment of peace.  You see this is our first year working on an advent calendar from beginning to finish. Before I would purchase the ones that have candy or toys in them as a treat for each day.  We would start off great but after the first week I would forget to let them flip it open for the surprise inside.  Looking back, I also realize there was no substance to what I was doing.  I had not given any lessons or reminders to what the calendar was for.  They just saw it as a countdown calendar to Christmas. 

 This year, I felt it had to be different. This year I felt convicted and wanted to make sure they truly understood what it was they were doing, why this month is so special and to make sure they new it WAS NOT about receiving a overload of toys. So when we started they were not sure what to expect. At first they didn't care to read the verses because I read the same story to them early in the day for their bible lesson. They just wanted to do the craft and have fun. 

Well after a few days of the advent calendar my children were reminding me to work on the calendar.  They liked looking for the clues of what they would be doing that day.  I was happy to see that all three of them were enjoying the different projects.

  

We actually fell behind a few days because we were searching for certain materials for the projects so tonight we sat down and work on them so that we were caught up. Even though I was tired and tempted to wait until tomorrow I didn't and you know, I was grateful that I did not allow my flesh to decide.

 They happily took turns reading and listening to the stories from the bible and patiently waited for instructions of how to create the craft. To continue in this mood of worship they even used there time while waiting for everyone to finish their craft to continue praising God through song and dance. 

 It was one of those moments that I felt so blessed and grateful to be homeschooling. It is moments like this that are confirmations that I am doing what God intended for me to do. So I pulled out the camera and took a few pictures to help hold on to this moment!