My Secret Weapon to Survive the Holidays!
My Secret Weapon to Survive the Holidays!
We sat together at the table during Advent, reading the Seeking the Christmas Lamb and Bible passages by flashlight, experiencing the glow of the candles on our faces, sharing our thoughts and hearts, engaging the activities to solidify the written words.
Advent, the 28 days leading up to Christmas, became one of our most meaningful times of engagement as a family. It is also one of the best memories all our daughter’s point to from their childhoods.
Seeking the Christmas Lamb came from I dream I held deep in my heart. I wanted to see our beautiful children know how deeply they were loved by the God who created them.
I longed for our family to connect in a deeper level than the day to day busyness and stress that comes with greater pressure and responsibility during the holidays.
I wanted to create memorable moments together that would impact our kids, establishing traditions they could even do with their own families one day.
I also dreamed of our daughters knowing the bigger story of the Bible and desire to “know” Scripture so it spoke to and guided them in their everyday life!
Finally, I dreamed of our family experiencing gift of “The Christmas Lamb” Jesus, being willing to leave the comfort of heaven to come into our world to ultimately lay down his life for ours.
My dream impacted our family.
God gave Seeking the Christmas Lamb to our family as a gift. One day I just sat down and started looking up Scriptures that mentioned a lamb or sacrifice and before I knew it, I had enough Scriptures for the whole 28 days of Advent to tell the story of the Christmas Lamb!
- We began to use these Scriptures as our advent readings.
- I made up fun activities for our children to do in response to them.
- I developed some questions we would explore together
- I incorporated the flashlight into our advent experience so that it created a bit of mystery and fun!
The Advent tradition became key for our family in lingering for a longer period over dinner, beginning to talk about deeper things rather than our everyday conversation, and gave us fresh breath to move through the rest of our crazy lives with three young children.
I was content to continue to use my advent notes to support our family’s faith development, but it seems the Lord had other plans.
One day, I was approached by a friend who worked at NavPress who asked me to submit one of my writings. I began to take my notes and develop them into a presentation that looked like a book.
I literally mailed my draft of Seeking the Christmas Lamb on the way to the airport for an extended family vacation, knowing that when we returned we were most likely going to announce our move from Denver to Seattle, and life would become really CRAZY!
Life did turn upside down as we made our plans to move. I forgot all about the book submission, that is until NavPress let me know they had decided to publish Seeking the Christmas Lamb!
This is what it looked like when it arrived one wintery day in 2003:
Seeking the Christmas Lamb–1st Edition
Last year I got a letter from NavPress saying they had been sold and they were releasing the rights of the book back to me.
My wonderful friend, Anne Thompson, creator of ebookannie.com, had the idea to redo Seeking the Christmas Lamb so as she described, “It had the clothes to fit the impactful content within it!”
I was wrestling with the decision because I had sentimental value with it being my first published book, but as I thought about the opportunity to share this message that changes lives in a simple format that engages every generation, I decided to make the leap to a complete redesign of Seeking the Christmas Lamb.
One of my greatest passions is to equip people with resources that are transformational, rather than just informational, so we can live what God invited us to experience!
So, Brenda Emmert, who has partnered with her husband, Drew, to design the “You were Meant for More” book series happily accepted the role of giving Seeking the Christmas Lamb a new look!
You were Meant for More Book Series!
As we dreamed together for what could be, she began to see images, one for each week of Advent and Epiphany that would mark the chapters and watermark each page.
As we envisioned the cover, I knew that red was the right color because it signifies Christmas, but even more the precious gift Jesus the Christmas Lamb came to give us, his blood which covers everything and sets us free!
Some of you may be asking what makes Seeking the Christmas Lamb unique?
These are some of the comments made by others to describe it:
"A perfect guide to replace holiday stress with intentional conversation and meaningful memories."
"Engaging content which includes activities for children, reflection questions for families, individuals and groups."
"Beautifully designed, with different icons for each week, and color throughout, making it visually appealing."
"Each daily reading has room for notes and drawings: making the book a Family Christmas Treasure year after year."
Don’t know what to buy for your Christmas list? Seeking the Christmas Lamb is a special gift for even the hardest one to please!
So, let me ask you:
- What are your dreams for your family?
- Where do you feel stressed or disappointed about your family interaction?
- Where do you long to go deeper with Scripture and your faith but feel unequipped to do it?
Seeking the Christmas Lamb has been developed with you in mind.
It’s a simple process that leads us into profound experiences with God.
Seeking the Christmas Lamb: A Family Advent Handbook
Advent starts Sunday, November 28th….will you invest in the investment God deposited in you and Reclaim the Christmas you were created to experience?