The Lessons of Advent: Love

I know what you're thinking...the love candle was last week.  Yes, it was.  I'm late in posting my "cheat sheet" on the theme for Advent, Week 2.  And to be honest, this means that the below is more a summary of what we actually talked about than a "plan" of any sort.  I questioned the effectiveness of my laid-back approach to last week more than a couple of times and hope that the girls learned something in spite of their Mommy's slacking.  We pretty much dissected our theme verse and sang lots of Christmas songs.  Each girl chose one song every night (which turned into a LOT of Go Tell it on the Mountain, which is quickly becoming a staple in our repertoire).  Anyway, here's what we talked about:

LOVE

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son."  John 3:16

Who is God's only Son?  Jesus (or "Baby Jesus," if you're talking to my girls)

Who do you love?  The girls named lots of people.  And then I asked them who loved them more than anyone else.  They guessed several people, including their Mommy and Daddy.  I told them that yes, Mommy and Daddy love them VERY much.  But that God loves them even more!

We sang Jesus Loves Me.

In retrospect, this would have been a great week to talk about giving gifts.  We give gifts at Christmas to the people that we love.  We want to give people we love really great gifts that they will like!  God gave us the best gift of all because He sent His Son, Jesus.  He must love us an awful lot to have given us such a precious gift.

We have previously worked with Hallie on the verse, "Let us love one another, for love comes from God."  (To the point that one night at a family gathering we were fussing at her for being mean to Sara and when Jason told her to love her sister, she responded in singsong, "because love comes from God..."  We had to laugh and breathe a sigh of thankfulness that some of what she heard was sinking in.  Even if it's just "head knowledge" at this point, we pray that one day it will be "heart knowledge" for her and that when that day arrives she will have a treasure trove of Truth to draw from.)  This verse is a good next step for love week as well.  After talking about how much God loves people to send Jesus to them, move to loving others and how we can show love to other people.