An Idea for Your Devotional Time in Advent

The season of Advent began yesterday and so we are officially in a time of expectation and waiting for the coming of Jesus!  It is, as the songwriter said, “the most wonderful time of the year!”  However, as you know, it can be a season that brings great anxiety, pressure, and even depression.

Last week, I encouraged you to “re-set” the rhythm of your life to the quiet waiting of Advent.  Now, I’d like to offer one way you can put action to that.  This is a great tradition you might want to try out during your personal prayer time in the next four weeks.  It’s a great experience for families as well.

You can easily make your own Advent Candle to help focus your prayer and devotional time during this season.  Get a tall, slender candle – something like a 12 inch dinner candle.

Then take a ruler and felt tip pen. Start about an inch from the bottom so there’s enough candle to stand up. Then mark all the way up the candle, twenty-six evenly spaced segments.  The candle in the picture is, of course, store-bought, but it gives you the idea!

You can then use your felt tip pen to mark the dates.  Starting at the top with December 1, all the way to 24 at the bottom.

Then, choose a time every day when you can burn one segment. A slender candle takes 10-20 minutes, depending on the length, width and quality of wax.

What to do while the candle burns?  You could use the time to sit in silence, or read, or pray.  You might make a family commitment to sit together silently, praying for one another.  Advent is traditionally a time of waiting:  perhaps you can pray every day for a person or place that is waiting for news, or peace, or healing.

If you’d like a daily schedule of scripture readings for Advent, here is a good list to work from.

I hope you’ll take the next two days to prepare for this “new” tradition!  It’s actually very old, but it’s been a new experience for me and my family, and we’ll be doing it again this season.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for focal points or things to contemplate during the burning of each segment, please share them in the comments below.