Gilliam Family 25 Days of Christmas: Teachable Moments

One thing I heard from all of my professors as I was earning a degree in Education was you should always take advantage of "teachable moments".  These are times when you are teaching your students and a question or subject comes up that is not in your plans, but has relevance to the material you are covering or life in general.

As I said before, the number one rule of the Gilliam Family 25 Days of Christmas is that we are always looking for ways to fix our eyes on Jesus, and encourage our children to do so.  We are just a few days into December, and already I'm learning that the "teachable moments" are much more effective in pointing out the reason we celebrate than are the plans.  I'm so encouraged by the way that the Lord reveals Himself to us in the nitty gritty moments, and we are praying that the Lord would use these moments to draw our children into His fold.

Speaking of "folds", the talk of Shepherds has brought about teachable moments.  The first Sunday of Advent we talked about how we are "Waiting for our Shepherd" (you can read about it here), and every time we are at the table where our Advent wreath sits we have reviewed with Piper.  What does "advent" mean?  What our we celebrating and hoping in as we light the first candle?  God is our _______?  I'm finding that repetition is key with a 3 year old, but as we reviewed I realized that she had no concept of a shepherd.  So we spent time this morning talking about and looking at pictures of shepherds and sheep and comparing them to the way that God cares for us.  I read her Psalm 23 with new eyes.  I pray that she heard.

Perhaps my favorite moment has come as a result of our advent calendar.  We were gifted this children's Advent calendar with a character or animal for each day of December that sticks to a nativity scene, with the last character being the baby Jesus in a manger.  Piper and Gabe have both become enamored with it, and while he just went for it, she kept asking to choose her favorite characters.  Repeatedly.  From the moment it came out of the Christmas box.

As I said, "No, you have to wait until December" for the hundredth time I realized that WAITING is what the Advent season is all about.  Now when she asks to pull all the people we are able to have a meaningful discussion about how Jesus'
coming was promised long before it actually happened.  God's people waited for Jesus to come to Earth as a baby.  He did.  He died on the cross for our sins, and He rose from the dead.  Now we are God's people, and we are waiting for Jesus to come again.

Oh, that she might know and love the story that is God's plan for redemption.  Amen.

Read about how the Gilliam Family 25 Days of Christmas got started here.