A Christmas Study for MOMS: 25 Days of Anticipation

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At Christmas time, it’s so easy to get caught up in gift shopping, cooking, the kids, getting out of school, and the list could go on and on. As moms, we are just busy all of December, am I right? But what if this Christmas, we tried to slow down, even if just a few minutes a day and really focus on Jesus this season? What would that do in the lives of our families?

In light of that, I want to invite you to join me in doing an online Bible study called 25 Days of Anticipation. There will be a daily reading and devotional for each day leading up to Christmas, that short enough to be manageable for your busy schedule as a mom, but help you and I keep our focus on Jesus this Christmas.

(SIGN UP HERE!)

 

LET’S LEARN FROM THE AUTHOR OF THIS STUDY:

 

Mallory:

Today I have a special guest with me who had a very instrumental role in writing the Christmas Study I mentioned above. She is my coworker and friend, Deborah Wade, but we like to call her “Deb” here around the office. I’m so glad you could join me today, Deb!

 

Deb: 

Oh, I’m glad to be here, Mallory. I love being with young moms. I’m an older mom now and a grandmother, but hopefully I can share from some of my experiences…

 

Mallory: 

Well, I’m so glad to have you! 

Deb is a wife, mom to 3 grown sons and a grandmother of 2.

She is also our content strategist here at Love Worth Finding (And remember, Faithful 31 Moms is a Love Worth Finding ministry.) Deb is constantly writing and editing for us…She’s a brilliant creative mind! I wanted to interview her today so she could share specifically about the 25 Days of Anticipation Christmas study that she helped write. 

So let’s dive right in, Deb. How can a mom use this study as her quiet time for the next 25 days leading up to Christmas?

 

Deb:

Well, I’m really glad that this is available, especially for young moms! A baby changes everything, and you sure know that when you bring one into the household…And every time you have another baby, it changes everything all over again! But with this book, we’re going to study Jesus, who REALLY does change everything for all time. And so as you go through this study day by day, it is short and manageable for a busy mom, and you’re going to be looking not only at some of the prophecies that were written about Christ, but how they were fulfilled also. 

So you’re really going to, in a very short capsule, look at Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. You’re going to look at Him in prophecy. You’re going to look at His birth, His life on Earth, His death, His resurrection, and the fact that He’s coming again. And you really can see that baby Jesus changes EVERYTHING for all of us for all time!

 

Mallory:

I love that! I’m excited about doing it alongside of these moms. I have not yet done it either, so I’m looking forward to it! 

Deb, you shared with me that when you were working on the writing for this book, you were in the middle of keeping your grandkids, and it was actually last Christmas season. So when you were working on this project, were you keeping your grand babies and reflecting on past Christmases when you had your three sons at home as little boys?

 

Deb:

Yes, I was. I was remembering back to when my kids were small and my boys all remember this. And in fact I still have it. I had created this wall hanging that was four by six that was hanging on the wall and it was a Christmas tree. It had 25 pieces of Velcro on it. And each piece of Velcro held an ornament. And every day we do a short devotion, you’d put that ornament on that tree and by the end of it they could tell a little bit about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation and they knew 25 Bible verses.

So that type of content is what was in my mind when I was writing 25 Days of Anticipation. And, at the same time, I was keeping my oldest grandchild a lot because he had a little sister who was born and with some health challenges. And so she was in the hospital quite a bit. So I would be rocking Will to sleep and enjoying him. And then he’d take a nap and I’d go to work on the book or he’d go down and I’d go to work on the book. And it was a real special time. A time I’m never going to forget.

 

Mallory: 

When you were writing this book about keeping the focus on Jesus and you have shared a lot about that with me…would you share some of your stories and examples of this?

 

Deb: 

Yes, this is something for young kids especially…When my boys were young, and still to this day with my grandkids, I sit out a little baby doll Jesus in a manger type cradle in front of the Christmas tree. So when I put the Christmas tree up, which is the very beginning of our decorating and getting ready for Christmas, baby Jesus is in the cradle in front of the tree. 

Well, as Christmas goes on, everybody gets really busy, but the kids are still playing with little baby Jesus. They might “feed” him Christmas cookies, walk around the house with him, etc. but then all the presents come out and suddenly you’ll look over and say, ”Where’s baby Jesus?” Because everything is just crowded with presents and wrapping paper everywhere around the tree, and it’s kind of symbolic of how we crowd up our Christmases. But when Christmas is over and the presents are put away, the wrapping paper and boxes are in the trash and the tensile is all gone…there’s baby Jesus, still there. It’s such a great object lesson, because He is with us all year long. And even though we know He is the center of Christmas, sometimes we forget because we have so much going on! So that’s one of the things that I would say made Christmas special at our house. I also did a birthday cake every year for Jesus and my kids loved that!

 

Mallory:

I’ve done the birthday party for Jesus, but I’ve never sat out a baby Jesus before…what a great idea! 

So what would your hope be, Deb, for a young mom to get out of this 25 day study? I find that it’s always a good idea to try new things, but sometimes it’s hard for me to stick it out and really finish it. So what would you say to encourage a moms, to stick it out and do the full 25 days, and really get the most out of it for this Christmas?

 

Deb: 

I’d say don’t worry about whether your children are going to remember every word if you do it with them. Whatever they get, they get. And if you’re consistent, they’re going to pick up something. In Deuteronomy, we’re told to talk about the Lord as we sit, as we walk along the way, whatever we’re doing, and this is just one of those activities. And for the mom reading this, I would hope that you personally grow stronger in your faith in understanding Jesus is with you ALL day, EVERY day. Jesus is weaved throughout the entire Bible from creation to eternity. That you would get that sense that it’s not just about Christmas, it’s about Jesus.

 

Mallory: 

Yeah, absolutely! As moms we work so hard to get everything ready for Christmas, and then once all the presents are open and the trees coming down, it’s kind of sad because you’re like, I’ve worked so hard for this day and now this day is over. But I think that when you do something like this study, you realize, well, it was never about the presents or the tree to begin with. Christmas is about Jesus and him being born is just the beginning. 

We as moms still have plenty to do and to live for past Christmas chaos…we are here to serve Jesus, and what we learn from these 25 days we can take into January and really start to dig deeper into learning more about the Lord. 

Deb, any other advice or words of wisdom that you want to share or anything about the study that you haven’t gotten to share yet?

 

Deb: 

Well, I think we’ve talked about the study a lot, but going back to what we were talking about earlier about everyday conversations with your kids…bring Jesus along. In the difficult moments, in the fun moments…You can be walking down the street or anywhere and bring Jesus up in conversation with your kids, not just at Christmas but ALL year long!

I still do this with my grandkids…We will take a walk and I’ll just stop in the middle of the street and look up and say, “Look at the beautiful tree God made. Isn’t that awesome? And look at the colors. He didn’t have to give us these colors, but He did. He wanted us to enjoy them.” Then we try to name the colors we see. Just talk about God all the time and read them Bible stories, as if He’s there with you, because He is!

 

Mallory:

Yes, kids will definitely pick up on the conversations and learn the Bible stories , like you said earlier, little by little. Here are some of my favorite versions of the the nativity or Christian focused books, because I know a lot of people love to buy new books every Christmas season, and that can be a fun way to keep the focus on Jesus as well!

Here is my Amazon list of Suggestions: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3N94M6CTE0BPC?ref_=wl_share

 

Mallory: Thank you so much for joining me today, Deb!

 

Deb: I’m glad you had me, Mallory. I enjoyed it!

 

 

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE AS A PODCAST