No Gift For A King: Sacrifice During Advent
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever echoed the Little Drummer Boy’s thoughts? “I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give a king.”
The season of Advent begins in five days and it’s the perfect time for me and you and our children to give gifts for our king. What kind of gifts? you ask. And what on earth is Advent anyway? you might also ask.
What is Advent? I’ve always called it “the Christmas season”. It’s the month before Christmas when we prepare for the birth of Jesus. I’ve always focused on giving gifts to others, because that is typically what we do here in North America. Lots and lots of gift-giving.
We give gifts and we make lists. Lists of what we want. Lists of what we’re buying for others. Lists for Santa and lists for Grandma. We spend a lot of time shopping. Some of us even go out the night of Thanksgiving and we score amazing deals on those gifts.
But what about Jesus? Let’s tweak our usual focus just a bit and give something back to Jesus. It is His birthday. He is the baby. And when babies are born, we love to give them gifts.
What kind of gifts can we give him? I can’t knit him a hat or buy him a blanket.
Gifts of sacrifice.
What if our children knew that every time they make little sacrifices throughout their day they are giving a gift to baby Jesus? What a beautiful Advent season it would be at my house and yours. Even if we did no nightly or morning devotions. Even if the advent wreath was never lit. If our families are focused on sacrificing daily, we would all be thinking of someone besides ourselves. It’s a beautiful thought.
That sounds nice, Christy, but exactly what kind of sacrifices are we talking about here?
Simple ones. We can give our children some ideas like these:
- giving a treat you’ve earned to your little brother
- not sitting in your favorite spot at mealtime so your little sister can sit next to the baby
- giving up 2 hours to ring the bell for the Salvation Army (a great family activity)
- using part of your own money to buy canned foods for the food pantry at church
- passing on dessert
- taking an extra helping of veggies
- letting a brother or sister play with your favorite toy
- giving your big sister the receipt to hold for the exit at Costco
The sacrifices can be so small. So simple. But each one is for Jesus. I think our children can really get into that. They can probably be very creative.
This week I’ll have a few ideas on how to help our children maintain this spirit of giving throughout Advent on my blog, One Fun Mom. Please come join the series: “Preparing for Jesus: Bringing meaning to Christmas through Advent”, and link up any of your holiday posts, too!
Christy is the mother of three boys and one girl. She has been known to homeschool, change diapers and potty train simultaneously. She’s been married for 8 years to Charlie, a surfer and entrepreneur and lives on the Central Coast of California. Christy’s passion is to embrace motherhood as the calling God gave her. In the midst of the hard work mothering requires, she strives for new ways to have a fun outlook on being a mother. She shares her ideas and encouragement at One Fun Mom.
*Don’t forget, all this week you can enter the Thanksgiving Week Giveaway for a $35 gift coupon from DaySpring!*
I’m already enjoying your series, Christy!
These are all great ideas!! We’ve been having lots of little squabbles pop up among all of us. Something like these ideas are a great way for us all to get the focus off of ourselves. Even if we are irritated with another person, thinking of making a sacrifice that benefits them as a gift to Jesus can ease the transition! Baby steps, right?