Mormons don't typically celebrate Advent, but I frankly don't know why. Perhaps it was an effort to set ourselves apart from other churches (since Catholics and many Protestants do observe it). When he came home from his mission in Norway, my husband brought an advent wreath, which is a round candleholder which holds 4 candles. Our family has always lit the advent candles, one on the first sunday, two on the second, and so on until Christmas. (This year, since Christmas falls on a sunday, Advent begins earlier than usual.)
In some traditions, each week is marked with a virtue, most commonly (from what I understand) are faith, hope, love, and peace. This year, I am choosing to observe Advent with my own adaptation of that. Each week I am choosing a virtue (not necessarily the traditional ones), and during that week I will study, ponder, and strive to practice that virtue. Since I am in charge of the children's primary at church here, I am also doing our "sharing time" lesson based on the virtue of the week.
This week, the theme is HOPE.
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| I showed the primary kids this picture, and we talked about prophets foretelling Christ's coming, and about how believers had to have hope that He would come. We talked about us now having hope for His return. |
hope
the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best
a person or thing in which expectations are centered
to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.
to believe, desire, or trust
to feel that something desired may happen
As I said, I'll be putting some study, pondering, meditation, and so forth in this week. Theoretically I will write something about my thoughts in a few days. But for now, I invite you to join me in celebrating Advent.
I love Advent! This is our fourth year, at least, of observing it. Each year I am making adaptations to make it a more enjoyable experience for my kids, and last night we had such a magical experience that I think maybe I finally figured it out. (The trick seemed to be balancing the amount of scripture-reading with more singing.)
ReplyDeleteThere is a BYU professor named Eric Huntsman (you can google his name with the word "advent" that has a great website and just published a book this year on Advent. It appears to be a really nice book, and it's nice to have some at least unofficial church backup for our observations. Now that we are Waldorf homeschooling, that also adds some new elements to the concept of Advent.