Jesse Tree - Day 9

Person/Event: JOSEPH: God’s Providence and Showing Kindness
Scripture: Genesis 37: 1-36; 50: 15-21
Symbol: Coat

Tonight we learned about Joseph. What a great reminder about forgiveness! Even though Joseph's brothers had been mean and sold him into slavery, Joseph chose to forgive them because he knew that God had been with him all along. We talked about how we can forgive people who are mean to us or hurt our feelings. Em said she could ask God to help her forgive Hayden when she hits her ;). Oh, and this one is another story that has it's very own VeggieTales...as retold in the form of a Western. It's cute.

Joy to the World...

...the Lord has come!!

We're really enjoying getting ready for Christmas at the Rowe house!! Though we JUST finished decorating (I know, ridiculous!) and are still a little behind on our shopping, we're really hoping for this year to be the most our hearts will be ready to celebrate our Savior's birth!!

We've been busy playing with our Nativity and baby Jesus! This is one of my favorite things we get to do each year...Scott reads the Christmas story from the girls' Bible and we get out our Nativities! And it's really the only thing the girls want to play with all day. Emerson loves to tell the story for Hayden and Hayden loves to push the button that plays Away in a Manger. Of course, I'm not sure they should be fighting over who gets to hold Baby Jesus so much, but it could be worse ;).

And a few nights ago, Em asked her daddy to fix Him just like this so that she could watch him from bed. Silly girl. I love that when we talk about Christmas, she knows that this story truly is the reason we celebrate.

At our MOPS meeting last month, the craft girls helped us prepare these fun little Countdown to Christmas calendars/activities. We've had fun finding a special little craft or activity to do each day...thanks to those sweet girls for putting this together!!

Last Saturday night, we headed over to the Old Towne Christmas at Murphy Road Baptist. They had a live nativity to walk through, cookies/hot chocolate and a storyteller for the kiddos. It was definitely chilly, but so worth it!! Em was SO excited to see the angels, the shepherds, the wise men and her favorite...baby Jesus!! She kept asking if she could go touch him ;). And Hayden kept saying "moo" to the poor donkey...easy to confuse, I say ;). It was very fun and we will definitely do it again next year.

But my favorite thing we've been doing this year is our Advent Jesse Tree. I had seen the idea here last year and loved the idea of counting down the days until Christmas with Scripture and the anticipation of Jesus' birthday! We are using a combination of this and this as our guide and it's been really fun to do this as a family. Each night after dinner (or sometimes in the morning if we had a late night), Scott reads the Scripture reference and we talk about the symbol and it's significance before we hang it on the tree. Obviously, Hayden is a little young to understand right now (she just enjoys getting to sit in daddy's lap) , but Emerson is LOVING our preparation for Jesus' Birthday. And she really is remembering what we've learned just by looking at/playing with the symbols on the tree. It's certainly not a very fancy tree and I didn't get started on the symbols quite early enough for them to all be nice, but I do know that the Lord is blessing our family as we go through this together. Take a look here at some of what we've done so far.

Jesse Tree - Day 8

Person/Event: JACOB: The Promise
Scripture: Genesis 28: 10-22
Symbol: Ladder

Tonight we learned about Jacob and that even though he had done some unkind things in his life, God still loved him and was always with him. Jacob thought that he could run away from his family and may have even thought he could run away from God. But we know that God is always with us! God gave Jacob a wonderful dream to remind him that He is always there. Em said that she knew God is with her even when she is playing with her toys and with Kennedy.

One other precious gift from God today...this morning, Emerson asked me if she could ask God to live in her heart. We know that she is young, but we have no doubt that He has already started working in her little heart. I'm in awe as I get to watch her learn more about Him everyday.

Jesse Tree - Day 7

Person/Event: ISAAC: The Offering
Scripture: Genesis 22: 1-14
Symbol: Ram

This morning, we learned about Abraham, Isaac and the offering. This one was a bit tough for us to put on her level, especially since daddy and mommy even have a hard time imagining the faith Abraham must have had in God!! But we talked about how God asks us all to love Him even more that we love each other and that He will protect us when we choose to obey Him...even when it is a hard decision. Emerson said she feels God's protection when she is sleeping ;).

Jesse Tree - Day 6

Person/Event: SARAH: Answered Prayer
Scripture: Genesis 21: 1-7
Symbol: Cradle

Tonight before bed (and after s'mores!), we learned about Sarah and how God answered her prayers for a baby! We talked about how God ALWAYS answers our prayers...even if He sometimes says, "no". And we thanked Him for loving us enough to that.

Jesse Tree - Day 5

Person/Event: ABRAHAM: Obeying the Call
Scripture: Genesis 12: 1-7
Symbol: Camel and Tent

Tonight we learned about Abraham's journey to Canaan and how God sometimes asks us to do tough things too. Emerson agreed that sometimes it's hard to obey mommy and daddy, but that's what God wants her to do. And she seemed excited when we talked about the promises God gives us and the blessings we receive when we DO obey. Fun night!

Jesse Tree - Day 4

Person/Event: NOAH: The flood and The Promise
Scripture: Genesis 6: 11-14; 7: 17-8: 3; 9: 8-13
Symbol: Ark with rainbow

We were out a little late last night, so we actually did our Tree this morning. Today we learned about Noah. Of course, this is one of Emerson's favorites anyway, so she really enjoyed it. And Miss Hayden gave her best elephant sound too ;). Of course, we had to watch our "Search for Noah's Umbrella" VeggieTales movie later in the day.

Jesse Tree - Day 3

Person/Event: ADAM & EVE: The first sin
Scripture: Genesis 3: 1-19
Symbol: Apple w/ snake

Tonight Emerson was SO concerned about the snake striking man's heel. The look on her face was just horrified, but she seemed to understand much better after her daddy reassurred her that God had to give Adam and Eve a consequence for disobeying. She may have heard that a time or two ;).

Jesse Tree - Day 2

Person/Event: GOD: Creation
Scripture: Genesis 1: 26-31
Symbol: World

Tonight we talked about creation. We've actually been learning about this at home AND in Em's Sunday School class lately, so she is very familiar with this topic. Though no matter how many times we've heard it, it continues to blow me away!

Jesse Tree - Day 1

Person/Event: INTRODUCTION of Jesse Tree
Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-2
Symbol: Tree

Isaiah 11:1-2
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -

Tonight was the first night of our Advent Jesse Tree. I'm SO excited to see what God will teach us through this experience. Tonight we talked about Jesse and how his family tree leads all the way to Jesus' birth. Emerson was excited to talk about Jesse because she remembered that he was David's daddy from one of her VeggieTales movies. Of course, we had to watch that part after we were done ;).