Manna For Moms

Devotions for Moms Like You!

November 2010

Advent Activities for Kids (Week 1)

Megan Breedlove No Comments

As announced, I am trying something different this year. Instead of posting weekly devotions, I will post Advent activities for each day in December up to, and including, Christmas. Each activity illustrates a particular aspect of the Christmas story and is designed to help you and your children think about this precious story in a (perhaps) new and different way. Most activities require almost no advance preparation; a few do require some prep time, and these are clearly marked. If it works better for your family to do different activities on different days, feel free to do so. Or, if you think of your own activity that would be more meaningful to you and your family, I hope you will use yours instead of mine.

My prayer is that God will use these activities to bring you and your children closer to our Savior. May He grant you a new appreciation for the tremendous gift He gave us in sending His Son, and may the peace of that Baby born in a stable rule your hearts this Christmas, and always.

December 1—Make sugar cookies. Have fun cutting out, baking, and decorating them. Talk about how delicious and sweet they are. Point out to your children that as sweet as cookies and candy are, Jesus is the sweetest part of the Christmas season. Remind them that even though the cookies will soon be gone, they can experience Jesus’ sweetness throughout the Christmas season, and all year long.

December 2—If you have a nativity scene in your home, use the figures to act out the Christmas story. (If you don’t have one, you can make one cheaply using ClipArt pictures on cardboard backing, and a cardboard stable. When we did this one year, my kids loved it and were very proud of it.) Let each child have a chance to be the characters he or she wants to be.

December 3—Make birthday cards for Jesus, which you will present to Him at His birthday party (which will be the advent activity for December 25). Remind your children that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus’ birthday, not only about receiving gifts. Display the Christmas cards just as you do your children’s birthday cards.

December 4—Have a “Mall Treasure Hunt”. Print out various pictures of Christmas-related items on a sheet of paper such as candy canes, wreaths, reindeer, etc. (you can use ClipArt). Be sure to include Santa and also a picture of Baby Jesus. Go to the mall, and have your kids look for these items. When they find one, they should cross it off. They will likely have difficulty finding Baby Jesus. Point out that the reason for this is that Jesus isn’t welcome at the mall sometimes. Discuss why this might be (people don’t know Jesus; they don’t want to offend others; etc.). End by talking about what you and your family can do to show people that Jesus is welcome in your home. (Note: if, by chance, you do find a manger scene or two at the mall, point out that the secular symbols far outnumber the religious ones. Then make the point suggested above.)

December 5—(Note: advance preparation needed!) For this activity, you will need white 10-gallon trash bags, plenty of newspaper, Scotch tape, cardboard paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls (two paper towel rolls or four toilet paper rolls per person involved), construction paper or a paper plate (one per person), and a marker. You will be making sheep so that you can then go abide in a field (your front or back yard) with your flocks. Stuff the trash bag with crumpled newspaper until it’s the desired size of your sheep. Twist off the remainder of the bag and secure it by wrapping tape around it. (If there is much extra bag left, cut some off, leaving the remainder for a tail.) Use four toilet paper rolls (or two paper towel rolls, cut in half to make four pieces) for the legs. Tape them onto the bottom. They won’t be completely stable (pun intended), but who cares? Use the paper plate or construction paper to make a face and—you guessed it—tape it onto the sheep body. Now, you have sheep. Go out to your front yard and abide in it with your flocks. Talk about how the shepherds must have felt when they were minding their own business, tending to their sheep, and suddenly, an angel appeared with an incredible announcement, and then a multitude of singing angels! If you have a front porch, let the kids take turns going up on the porch and being the angel making the announcement.

December 6— If you have a sleeping baby, great. If not, prepare a doll in a doll bed if possible. Go out your front door and be the shepherds on their pilgrimage to find the baby Jesus. Travel around to your back door and go inside. Marvel at the sleeping baby.

December 7—(Note: requires advance preparation!) Cut out the shape of a large Christmas tree and several shapes for ornaments (no need for these to be complicated, unless you want them to be). Put the Christmas tree up on the wall. Each time your child sees someone else in the family do something that makes Jesus happy, write it on an ornament and tape it to the tree.

Walking by Sight

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Apparently, campouts are one of God’s favorite ways to illustrate His spiritual truth. That seems to be the case in my life, at least. Take, for example, our recent church campout. Even before we left, God had already reminded me of a lesson we all need to learn (see last week’s devotional). On the campout itself, He continued to speak. In fact, He taught me that walking by sight can be a good thing. Let me explain.

My husband was leading Kenny and Lindsey to the small building that housed the bathrooms. Fortunately, they were not only well-maintained, but also close by. It was dark at this point, so my husband was supervising the use of a flashlight to light their way. He reminded the kids not to shine it in people’s eyes (which they have a tendency to do on accident) but instead to shine it directly on the path in front of them.

One of them took the flashlight and pointed the beam of light toward the bathrooms up ahead. “No,” my husband said, “you have to shine it right in front of you. Otherwise, you might trip over something that’s in your way.”

“And you always follow the light,” Lindsey added.

That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? Keep the light pointed right in front of you, and follow it.

God will often illumine two things for us: the goal and the first few feet in front of us on the way to reaching that goal. Just as the kids’ flashlight could either have lighted up the bathrooms or the path right in front of them, so God often shows us only those two things. He usually doesn’t light up the entire pathway on the way to the goal. He wants us to walk by sight to the extent of moving forward as far as He’s illuminated our way, and to walk by faith in terms of trusting that He will continue to light our path as we proceed toward the goal.

Sometimes, God doesn’t even illuminate the goal. In that case, we have to walk by faith that we will reach the goal He’s set for us. In those circumstances, we are to continue to follow the part of our path He’s made known (the part right in front of us), and trust that each “next step” He lights up will bring us not into danger, but closer to where He wants us.

I know it can be really hard to walk this way. But it’s what we have to do. Fretting about not being able to see the whole path won’t cause God to light up any more than what He’s already lit up. God knows that He’s given us enough light for what we need right now, and we simply have to believe that that’s true and trust that He knows what He’s doing. It really is as simple as that. It may not be easy, but it is simple.

Is there an area in your life where you’re having a hard time believing that you know enough about what’s ahead? Are you worried or anxious because you can’t see farther than a few steps ahead, or because you’re not even sure of your next step? Why not make a decision of your will to trust God that He’s taking care of you? That He knows the entire path ahead, even though you don’t, and that He’ll show you what you need to know, when you need to know it?

You’ll make it to the goal. God will see to that. But you can determine the measure of peace you have along the way. You can either trust God completely, and therefore know that you have nothing to worry about; or you can decide that the fact that God sees everything isn’t enough, and that unless you see everything, you cannot have peace. But who are you—who am I—to think that we ought to feel safer when we see things than when the Almighty God of the Universe, Who is Master of all things, sees everything and says that it’s okay?

Precious mom, let’s turn things entirely over to God. Let’s determine that when He sees things, that’s good enough for us. Let’s resolve deep within our hearts and minds that when He’s leading us home, we’re just where we ought to be, and nothing can befall us that’s outside of God’s control.

For after all, God is leading us home. Every step we take under His leadership brings us closer to heaven. And then, we will see everything, because there will be no more darkness. There will be no difference between walking by faith and walking by sight. Instead of reaching a wooden shelter at a campground, we’ll reach the loving shelter of His eternal embrace. And we’ll realize that we were in His hands all along.

Isaiah 42:16—And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Doesn’t Apply

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Our church recently held its annual fall campout, and this year, for the first time, our family was able to go. Our kids were all finally old enough that we thought camping with the whole family sounded like a good idea, so we packed up and headed out to a state park a couple hours away.

We all had a great time. Too soon (yes, seriously) it was time to come home. We lugged everything into the house, and I began the task of unpacking and getting the kids to help me. I put a load of stuff that belonged to the girls into their room and told them to start putting it away while I took care of something else. A few minutes later, I saw Lindsey bounding by on one of those large rubber balls with a handle, where you sit on it and bounce along. “Lindsey,” I said, “you need to clean up. I told you girls that already.”

“Oh,” Lindsey said innocently. “I thought you just meant Ellie and Jessica.”

Oh, no, she didn’t. She knew what the spirit of the law was. But because I hadn’t specifically named each girl, she saw a way to claim that she believed the letter of the law didn’t apply to her.

Sounds kind of like what we adults do, doesn’t it? Oh, we might not go as far as Lindsey did, and claim God’s law doesn’t apply to us, but we often give ourselves far more grace than we give others in determining what level of compliance is necessary in order to meet His standards. We may not say, “God’s law doesn’t apply to me; I don’t have to be loving.” But we might very well say, “Yes, God’s law applies to me, and I’m doing a fine job of fulfilling it.”

We act as if God’s law says “be more loving”, and then we figure that applies to other people who really need it, not to us who are already doing a good job. Or we proceed as if it says “be more patient”, and assume that also applies only to others who aren’t doing as well as we are.

But in reality, God’s law doesn’t say, “be more loving.” It says, “be perfectly loving (or patient, or kind, etc.),” and we fall far short of perfection. We are not “good enough”. There was only one “good enough” Person Who ever walked this earth, and that was Jesus Christ. He was the only One Who perfectly fulfilled God’s law. The rest of us fall woefully short.

I’ve often heard the phrase “we’re not under law; we’re under grace”. That’s true. But it doesn’t mean that God’s standards are any less. Yes, if we’ve acknowledged Christ as the Lord of our lives and asked Him to forgive us of our sins, His perfect sacrifice stands in our stead. He took our punishment so we wouldn’t have to. But His standards are still the same. He doesn’t say, “Now that you’re a Christian, it’s okay for you to be less than loving, because you’re under grace.” Quite the contrary. In fact, the Bible declares that people will know we are Christians by the love we have for one another.

God’s moral law still applies. And it still applies to us.

We would do far better to spend our time asking God to reveal the sin in our lives and repenting of it than to spend it deciding where other people have messed up and what they should do about it. I don’t mean that we should never confront others’ sin. There is a time, a place, and a way for that. But I do mean that confronting sin should start with that which we find in our own lives.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Help me to know it, too, and to spend more time searching it than searching the hearts of others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Matthew 7:3-5—Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

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