Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

I struggle every Christmas season to put the focus where it needs to be...on Christ.  I easily find myself caught up in finding the right present for that special someone, making the right Christmas Eve dinner, going to all the Christmas parties, cleaning my house, ordering Christmas cards, sending Christmas cards, rushing here and there and before you know it...I am stressed out and unfocused!  So this year I really felt God calling me to focus on Him.  And I have no doubt that He calls me to this "focusing" all the time but this time I really heard and acted.  Thus, began my search for things to bring my family together this Christmas season and to keep our focus where it belongs.  One of the things I found was a great advent family devotional called A Jesus Advent Celebration.  You can download it for free at http://www.aholyexperience.com/.

All I did was print out the devotional, punch holes in the sides and looped twine through them to make a very "rough and unprofessional" book of some sort!



Then I printed out the ornaments that correspond with each nights devotional, cut them out and again looped twine through the hole to make an ornament holder.



Gathered sticks from the backyard, arranged them in a vase and voila you got your own Jesse Tree ready for ornament hanging.

Our family has really enjoyed the study.  Every devotional builds on itself and points to Christ and his birth.  Although, I will have to admit our children like hanging the ornaments on the tree most of all.  I can't think of a night that a fight does not break out about who hung the ornament the night before and someone trying to take someone elses turn!  Oh well, it is a work in progress and we will keep trying!  It has been a wonderful time of being together as a family (even w/the fights), praying together and focusing on the one who IS Christmas, our Lord and Savior.

This is such a small part in what God is trying to tell me and I am well aware of that.  He wants my focus not just at Christmas but all the time.  But He always has a way of revealing himself to me even in the small things like an advent devotional and for that I am so thankful.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2