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Week 3 – All About Joy
We hope you are enjoying connecting with your grandkids during Advent. This week it’s all about Joy….but if you missed the first two weeks about Hope and Love, you’ll be able to read them here and here.
As we talk about joy and light the ‘joy’ candle, we will also light the ‘hope’, ‘love’ candles on our advent wreaths.
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘joy’? There obviously will be a great variety of answers to this question. We grandparents might say ‘being with our grandkids’, our grown kids might say ‘when the weekend arrives’, our grandkids might say ‘playing with friends’.
At this time of year though, I think a lot of us will choose something related to Christmas – being with family, decorating a tree, giving and receiving gifts. These are definitely joyous activities!
Choose Joy
As you talk about joy from an advent perspective with your grandkids, the Bible passage in the book of Luke chapter 1 verses 26-28 and verses 46-47 is a perfect passage to read. It tells the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and announcing that she would be Jesus’ mother. This certainly came as a surprise to her, and was definitely not in the plans that she saw ahead for her. Yet she chose to respond with joy. I’ll tell the story to Morgan like this (much as described above): “One day an angel named Gabriel appeared to a young lady named Mary. The angel told Mary that she was going to have a baby and be a mommy. The angel told her that the baby’s name was going to be Jesus. Mary was very surprised and chose to be joyful.”
We often think of joy as something that happens to us, rather than something we can create or choose. This year especially, our plans may have changed already, or may change at the last minute. Let’s be thinking of how we can choose joy even when things don’t line up as we planned. Demonstrating this choice is truly a great gift to our grandkids!
Conversation Starters
Here are some fun conversation starters and activities for your time together talking about joy.
Take the ‘Joy Challenge’
Sometimes, we can be the reason people choose joy! Remember the game where you try not to smile? This is the perfect time to do it, and it’s a great game to play while video chatting!
Choose someone to be the ‘no joy’ person. Their job is not to smile. Choose someone else to be the ‘joy giver’. Their job is to make the other person smile – make faces, tell jokes, do a silly dance…..do whatever it takes to ‘bring joy’ and make the other person smile.
Be Joy givers
Send a postcard to someone who needs cheering up, or leave one on your neighbors front door. (Christmas carols are optional, but a fun addition to this idea!)
Be super intentional aboout saying (or doing) nice things for others this week – you’ll make their day and will definitely give them joy!
Discussion Questions:
What do you think of when I say the word ‘joy’. (Or for younger grandkids, “What makes you happy?”
What are you good at that can bring joy to someone today?
What has someone done for you that makes you happy?
It’s natural to feel sad, if something doesn’t go the way you planned. What can you do the next time that happens?
Share with others in your family the things they do that bring you joy.
Don’t miss using this week’s ‘joy’ ornament from the Advent resource bundle (attached below). Spending time coloring together is a great time to engage in conversation!
Watch for next week’s post “All about Peace” in your inbox next week for the final week of advent!