I have positive but vague memories surrounding Advent as a kid. I grew up in a protestant Christian church, and we celebrated Christmas all month long in December, but the term “Advent” wasn’t tossed around too much - and when it was, it was usually just another word for “Christmas.” When I was a little older (say…13?) my parents started reading us an advent story every night for the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas. Since my mom is definitely reading this, I have to be honest and admit that I spent a lot of those readings squirming around and crawling under the Christmas tree and, once I was 16, sneaking a peek at my super cool Samsung slide phone for texts (gotta take advantage of those free nights and weekends).

I have friends who grew up in a more structured, traditional church environment, where they lit the candles and read the specific passages each Sunday as a church and each night as a family. There was more emphasis on celebrating Advent correctly. Maybe this was your experience and you have warm memories of Advent in all its comforting tradition. I really love that. Maybe you’ve done advent so much in the church setting that you’re already getting antsy and bored reading this. I get that too.

I was raised in a church that was the first generation discovering that there could be freedom from tradition, and so - in their own beautiful way - they crafted a new way of celebrating Advent with LESS emphasis on how it was “supposed to be.” I don’t have “tradition baggage” because of this, and I appreciate that deeply. But in a generation that grew up in the post-tradition movement, I feel a hunger for rich, meaningful practices that both ground me to my faith and connect me to the generations of believers that have come before me. To be honest, tradition is looking pretty good to me lately. And in a world where we can suddenly take NOTHING for granted, and where life moves at the speed of light, Steven and I want to center our Christmas season around the beauty of Advent again - and we’d love it if you joined us.

Some awesome friends from our church and I have written a brief devotional for you and your family to read together each night of the Advent season (the four weeks leading up to Christmas, beginning this Sunday!). Traditionally, advent is celebrated with 4 candles, each candle representing one week of the season. So that I’m not re-inventing the wheel, you can read about that here. You probably already know how I feel about purple and pink, so at our house we are using white candles. You can use green candles. Or black candles. Or pumpkin spice scented candles from Bath and Body Works. Or you can follow beautiful tradition and use an advent wreath. Do what works for you! If you’re single, get a few friends on speakerphone and do it together. Or take this time to be alone with Jesus. How perfect is that? 

Each night, Steven and I will be turning off the TV, putting away our work, and engaging with our kids as we light the advent candles and turn our attention to the beauty of the Gospel. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. We think taking a whole month to focus on that and teach it to our kids is pretty cool.

So that we can all go on this journey together (and to make things easy for you!), we’ll be sending out each day’s devotion as an email. To opt in, fill out The Daily Dig signup on our homepage!

Thank you for reading this far, and I hope that you’ll consider joining us in our celebration of Advent!

Love,

Lindsay Whitlow

celebrate advent with redemption

Select a button below to download a print-friendly PDF with all 7 readings for this week. We look forward to sharing the joy of Advent with you and your family!