Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room the Advent Season
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Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room The Advent Season Written by: Kendall Kennedy Edited by: Hayden Sentenn Note to the readers: Thank you so much for your interest in using this devotion to help teach your children about the true meaning of Christmas. When I set out to write this, I only intended using it for my own child. I often would sit her in front of me (2 years old) and read what I was writing out loud to make sure I was writing in a way that would intrigue her little brain. However, with so much prayer, I was diligent not to lessen the story of what Jesus did for us. I pray this opens their minds to the Gospel and lets them see their own need for a Savior. May they understand at an early age that action is required on their part to invite Jesus into their little hearts! I hope these lessons, pictures and activities give you an avenue to talk in depth about the love of our Savior with your littles. I am praying with you that as you read these stories, that they will grow a desire to prepare Him room in their hearts! I am also praying FOR you as you shepherd the hearts of your little ones during this Holiday season! To give credit where credit is due: every page was edited by my sweet friend, Hayden Sentenn. All images and most of the crafts are straight from Google! I do not claim them as my own! To God be the glory, great things He has done! I hope you have Merry Christmas as we celebrate the coming of our sweet Savior! Advent Activity Supply List Pipe cleaners Paint Glue Stapler Scissors Markers Construction paper Tissue paper String Cotton balls Paper plates Bells Hole punch Toilet paper rolls Popsicle sticks Candy canes Tealight candles Clear jar Day 1: SAVIOR What in the world is a Savior? Why do we need one? When it is Christmas time, you might hear a lot of people talking aBout the “Savior.” We sing songs aBout the Savior and we talk about celeBrating the Savior, but who and what is a Savior? Think of someone super cool…. like a doctor, your teacher, a police man or a fire fighter! We love these people because they are nice and they help us. BUT even though they are awesome… they are people just like you and me. There is ONLY ONE, TRUE SAVIOR! Our Savior is Jesus, and that is who we celeBrate on Christmas! Jesus was Born to a mommy and daddy, just like you were. BUT Jesus was ALSO the son of God. God sent Jesus down from Heaven to Earth so that He could show us how to love everyBody. Sometimes you might disoBey mommy and daddy, or you might Be mean to a friend, or even say words that are not so nice. These actions are called sin. Everyone sins (name people the child knows), BUT that is what makes Jesus so cool…. HE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO NEVER SINNED; He never did anything Bad! Jesus is so awesome Because He came down to Earth and lived a perfect life with no sin. BUT Because He loves us so much, He took the punishment for EVERYBODY’S sins. EveryBody in the WHOLE, WIDE WORLD! So that is why we say Jesus SAVED us from our sins, and THAT is what makes Him our SAVIOR. So now, when you hear people talk aBout the Savior, you can tell them you know aBout Jesus the Savior! Matthew 1:21 "She will have a baby boy; and you shall call Him Jesus because He will save His people From their sins." Key Point: Jesus is our SAVIOR! Prayer: Dear God, thank you For sending your son Jesus to the earth so that we could learn how to love people better and thank you For saving us From our sins. We love you so much! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen! Advent Activity: Make a paper chain with 24 rings on it. Explain to the kids that you will tear one off each day as it gets closer to Christmas day! Day 2: Promises Just like you read tons of books, the BiBle is a Big Book that has lots of little Books inside it. The BiBle was written By God, and we Believe everything in it is TRUE! He gave us the BiBle so we can learn more aBout Him! The first section of the Bible is what we call the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we read about people waiting for the day the SAVIOR would come. These people KNEW a Savior would come Because God made a promise. They did not know how the Savior would come or when the Savior would come. BUT, they Believed it would happen because of God’s PROMISE. GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES! They did not know it yet, but the Savior they were waiting on was Jesus. Did you know Jesus is also a KING? We call Jesus the King of Kings, which means He has more power than anyone else! One of the Books from the Old Testament says: “What I saw in my vision hasn’t happened yet. But some day, a king of Israel will appear like a star.” (Numbers 24:17) This verse means that one night a man went to sleep in his Bed, and while he was sleeping he had a dream! In the dream God told him that one day a new King will be Born into the world! So, when the man woke up, he told all his friends that they needed to Be happy and excited because God promised them there would Be a new king! Advent Activity: Make a rainBow out Key Point: We can believe God’s promises are true! of cotton Balls and cut up pieces of color paper. Explain that rainBows Prayer: Dear God, thank you For giving us the bible so that we arecan a learn sign ofmore God’s about promises you and to us! thank you that we can know that the bible is true! You are KING and we love you so much! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen! Day 3: Holly Holly is something we see as decoration at Christmas time! It is a green plant and the ends of the plant are very prickly! You have to Be careful if you touch it Because it could poke your finger and make you bleed! But it’s leaves are dark green and it has Beautiful red Berries in the middle! The red and green are colors we use to represent Christmas time! Just like so many other decorations, holly is supposed to remind us of a very important part of Jesus’ story! We have talked aBout Jesus Being the Savior of the world. But, did you that the reason God sent Jesus to the earth was so that He could die on the cross to save us from our sins? The Bible tells us that Jesus was Born, and as He grew up He lived a perfect life! Then, when He was an adult some people didn’t like Jesus. Those people did not understand that Jesus was truly the Lord! But, this was in God’s plan all along. God knew that this would happen! Even though Jesus had never sinned and never did anything wrong, He had to die on the cross so that He could save us from our sins. When Jesus was on the cross, they put a crown of thorns on His head. The thorns were very prickly just like holly! This sounds like a sad story, BUT IT IS NOT! God knew that this would happen, and we can trust that His plan is always perfect! This story is not sad Because Jesus did not stay in the grave! He rose up from the dead, and went Back to Be with God in Heaven! For all of this to happen and for us to Be given a Savior, Jesus had to Be Born! THAT is why we celeBrate Christmas, Because it is the day Christ came! So when we see holly, we should stop to rememBer that Jesus came so that He could die on the cross for our sins! Key Point: Holly is a reminder that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins! Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you For obeying God and dying on the cross to save us From our sins. Please help me to Focus on you during this Christmas season! We love you so much! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen! Advent Activity: Go for a walk around your neighBorhood or a park and look for some holly! Or make some out of construction paper! Day 4: The Nativity Today we are going to talk about what a Nativity is! Do you have a Nativity displayed at your house? The word Nativity means, “what was happening at the time of the birth.” People put up their Nativity at Christmas time to help to rememBer WHY we celeBrate Christmas in the first place. We celeBrate Christmas because that is THE DAY JESUS WAS BORN! HOORAY! On the day you were Born, you were in a clean hospital or maybe in your own comfortaBle home! You had all the things little babies need like: a Blanket, a Bottle, and lots of diapers. You also proBably had a warm and snuggly criB to sleep in too. But, did you know that when Jesus was Born that is NOT what it looked like for Him? Jesus was Born in something similar to a working barn! There were a lot of animals, it was not clean, and it was proBably very smelly.