Saturday, November 30, 2019

Advent Words 2019 Begins Tomorrow!


The season of Advent begins tomorrow. While this season leading up to Christmas is typically filled with rushing around shopping, attending parties and school events, and gathering with family, it is also a time to slow down and focus. I have found over the years that in order to that in this busy season, I must be intentional. Advent Words, the combining of reading Scripture and responding with creativity, has been the means for my intentional slowing down and reflecting during Advent over the past few years.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus and means "coming" or "arrival". This season leading up to Christmas is about waiting and preparing for this coming. 
  • The promised coming of the Messiah to the Jews.
  • The coming of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.
  • The promised coming of Jesus' return.
  • The continual coming of Christ in the lives and hearts of God's people.
This year's Advent Words focus will bring us words from the prologue to John's gospel found in John 1:1-18.

Click HERE for a PDF version of the calendar to download

Instagram badge - feel free to download and post


Would you like to participate?

  • The daily Bible study devotions, along with how I respond creatively, will be posted on this blog each day beginning on December 1. You can follow this blog by email or there will be daily links to the posts in the Words Challenge Facebook group. If you are a part of the Living Your Word of the Year Facebook group links to the blog post will be posted there as well.
  • Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbook, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy - any way you choose! As you take the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let it sink even deeper as you practice creatively with your hands.
  • Join the Words Challenge Facebook group where you can share your art and ideas and join the conversation through the Advent season and beyond.  I host a number of Words Challenges throughout the year. Join here:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/
  • Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2019
  • Reflect and prepare: choose the creative form you will use for your daily practice. Make a journal if that fits your creative form.


Friday, November 22, 2019

Introducing Advent Words 2019


Introducing Advent Words 2019




This year for the Advent Words challenge we will look closely at the Word in John's prologue (John 1:1-18). Using the prologue to John’s Gospel for Advent is a bit different than using the traditional Christmas accounts found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. John does not start with Jesus’s genealogy and birth or include the prophecies of the Messiah as Matthew does. John does not give us the stories and details surrounding Jesus’ miraculous birth as Luke does. In John’s Christmas account there are no mangers, no Bethlehem account, no wise men or shepherds, no virgin birth, no angels or starry night. John simply begins with the main point of Christmas – the Incarnation. 


For Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation, and John helps us focus on God’s Divine revelation - God has come to us in human form. Jesus is God incarnate and God is with us.


Over the years I have used the practice of art journaling as a way to intentionally slow down during the Advent season. This intentional period of slowing down has provided time to reflect and ponder the deeper things of this season - it's a time of preparing my heart for the coming of Christ.

Click on calendar for a PDF version without the image for easier printing.


Would you like to join me in slowing down the Advent season? It's simple:
  • The daily Bible study devotions, along with how I responded creatively, will be posted on this blog each day beginning on December 1. You can follow this blog by email or there will be daily links to the posts in the Words Challenge Facebook group. If you are a part of the Living Your Word of the Year Facebook group links to the blog post will be posted there as well.
  • Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbook, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy - any way you choose! As you take in the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let it sink even deeper as you practice creatively with your hands.
  • Join the Words Challenge Facebook group where you can share your art and ideas and join the conversation through the Advent season and beyond.  I host a number of Words Challenges throughout the year. Join here:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/
  • Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2019
  • In the days before the Advent season begins reflect and prepare: choose the creative form you will use for your daily practice. Make a journal if that fits your creative form.
In the past I have kept my Advent Words art journal pages in a variety of style s of journals.

This year, for my Living Your Word Journal, I had made a journal out of an old ledger. I made it with two signatures, which ended up being too many for my A-Z challenge in that group. So I decided to continue in this journal using the second signature of pages for Advent Words.










Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Living Your Word of the Year Letters U & V


In the Living Your Word of the Year group we have spent this past year working through the alphabet using the letters to pick words that support our word of the year. Four more letters left and we close the year and the decade. 

For U, I chose the word unfailing. To live a sacred life, I believe, means we need to have a strong connection with God's unfailing love. On this page I enjoyed clipping painted papers for a little collage.



For the letter V, I chose the word voice. For quite some time I have felt a strong connection with the call found in Proverbs 31:8-9, to be a voice for those whose voices tend to get drowned out by society - the poor, single moms, children -  the list could go on and on.



Wherever you live, I hope you are enjoying the change in season. I spent some time walking at the park yesterday. The sun was not out but everything glowed from the yellow and gold leaves on the trees. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. Despite the weather turning cold, there is just so much beauty to see as the leaves change color.





I am pulling together the word list for  Advent Words 2019. I will publish more details about the Advent Words project in the weeks ahead. 

May you take time to slow down and enjoy the beauty around you this week!