love and joy

advent day 3 & 4
love and joy

last night we celebrated the final days of advent. because of our late start we had to combine the third and fourth day. we made heart shaped sugar cookies to prepare- moonpie's recipe.




when she saw that we were making hearts she jumped on the opportunity to make the craft. after cutting out 10 hearts, she instructed us to decorate them. glitter abounded. this morning i had john cut a branch for me and we created our advent tree.



our theme for the night was love and joy. and while i would have liked to let each have their own night, love and joy really go hand in hand. where there is love there is joy. we shared how god is love. he can be nothing else because that is what he is. and out of that huge love, we are to find our joy, our peace and our hope.


this was our first year to observe advent as a family and it has been so special for us. for me it has been a great time to let go and let daddy do the planning. in doing so i have been shown that i need to step back more often. he loves this family insurmountably...advent has been a special reflection of that love.




1 John 4:7-8 (The Message)

God Is Love
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.