It’s Christmas time and my thoughts have been on how important it is to teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas. I’ve been asking myself how I can possibly keep the focus on Christ with all the other traditions fighting for our attention.
This year we added quite a few simple activities to our advent that are focused completely on Christ and what He means to us. I shared earlier this month a little game we created to help teach about Christmas Symbols. The symbols we see everywhere can remind us of our Savior if we understand the meaning behind them. I have loved hearing Lanae explain what all the symbols mean at the age of 4. When she puts it into her own words I honestly can’t even fathom how her brain works. She is so teachable right now and I just hope that we are making the most of those teaching moments.
The Light of Christ activity was probably one of my favorite activities that we have done this Christmas. It was so simple, but so profound.
We turned off all of the lights and talked about how sometimes we feel sad and lonely in this world. Sometimes we make mistakes and might lose hope or maybe we are scared. Those feelings can be represented by the dark room.
Luckily for us, a Savior was born to help us be happy, repent and bring hope and light into our lives. This was represented by lighting a candle in the room.
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
When we lit the candle, we continued to talk about what the light of Christ means to us and how we can help share the light of Christ with others.
Lanae blew out the candle once and immediately said ‘Oh no! I can’t see!’ Her reaction was the perfect teaching moment. Without Christ, it truly is hard to see and to find meaning in our lives. With Christ, there is hope to become better.
The kids were absolutely fascinated by the candle and so we just kept talking about it for about 20 minutes. It was really such a cool experience that I’ll cherish forever.
I hope that you’ve been able to slow down and remember our Savior, Jesus Christ and the reason for the season. I truly hope that his light shines bright for you this Christmas!
