Waiting with Kids — Turns out it’s kinda hard!

Ok, so perhaps I don’t know my kids quite as well as I claimed last week.  We did manage to make it through our Advent readings each night (save one) last week but Jason and I nearly lost our sweet minds in the process.   It’s possible that bedtime isn’t the best time of day for lighting candles, looking at pictures on the iPad and trying to read metaphorical verse with your kids.    Just a thought.

The first night actually went really  well and I was feeling sort of smug about the whole thing.  The boys enjoyed the picture of the kid in the garden, we chatted briefly about the passage and we lit the first candle without incident.  Rockin’ it.

The next night, though, and every night following, was an all-out battle of the wills between the 4 of us.  It was NOT pretty.   Gryffin ran to the bedroom door (sometimes out the door) whenever we started to light the candles because the match-lighting made him nervous.  Isaiah, on the other hand, could not get any closer to the matches during the candle-lighting.   When I was 5, my bangs caught on fire from the Advent candles (hel-lo  Aquanet) and I spent the entire season with singed tips on my forehead.  Needless to say, Isaiah makes me particularly nervous this year.

Both boys would then proceed to bounce around their bedroom or roll around on the floor in their underwear while Jason and I tried to talk about hope and the baby Jesus and blah, blah, blah.  I don’t know how many times Jason said, “Boys!  Sit down!  Attenta-focus on Mama!” while I tried in vain to explain what it means to “walk in the land of shadows.”

Do you know how much kids their age are able to understand metaphors?    Not a bit.  Not one single bit.   So in between telling the boys not touch the glass votives and not to dig their fingernails into the Christ candle, we attempted to explain “shepherd-rule” and “Daughter Zion.”

And do you know how you feel just before bedtime when your kids are 4 and 6?   DONE.  You feel done and any hope you had earlier in the day of explaining things like “shepherd-rule,” (which I still can’t even grasp) with any amount of patience is out the window.  WHO ON EARTH CARES ABOUT SHEPHERD-RULE JUST GO TO BED.  Lord, have mercy.

It wasn’t a total fail.  The pictures were a big hit most nights and the boys ran right over in reverent awe when they saw the glow of the iPad.  Honestly, I think at this age, you could light a candle, look at a picture and call it a day.  But I pressed on with the Scripture passages this week because… well, because SCRIPTURE.  Isn’t that kind of the point?   I’m hoping that more specifically connecting the images to the passage this week will give us a little more head way.  We’ll see.   I’m not holding my breath!

Week 2 is the Week of PEACE

Day 1 — Psalm 29:11 (MSG)

“God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.”

Day 2 — Isaiah 26:3-4 (CEV)

“The Lord gives perfect peace
    to those whose faith is firm.
 So always trust the Lord
because he is forever
    our mighty rock”

Day 3  — Isaiah 55:12-13 (MSG)

“So you’ll go out in joy,
    you’ll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
    bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
    exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
    no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
    living and lasting evidence of God.”

Day 4  — Isaiah 26:12 (NLT)

Lord, you will grant us peace;
    all we have accomplished is really from you.

Hehe, remember when I did a triathlon!

Day 5  — Isaiah 54:10 (MSG)

For even if the mountains walk away
    and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you,
    my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.”
    The God who has compassion on you says so.

Day 6  — Isaiah 9:6 (CEB)

A child is born to us, a son is given to us,
    and authority will be on his shoulders.
    He will be named
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Music

I listened to the song I picked last week a grand total of once.   This week’s pick is Silent Night by Pentatonix.   The “dawn of redeeming grace” connotes peace to me and the in-breaking of shalom.

Activity

Yeah, there was no baking last week.    We did talk about how we could offer hope to someone sad and the boys said they wanted to give people hugs.  That’s about as far as we got on the kinesthetic learning.    I’ll get on it for this week just as soon I as I figure out that shepherd-rule thing.