Steve Watters: “Mom and Dad can hardly wait”

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow, and the countdown to Christmas is on. Commentator Steve Watters has a suggestion on how to slow down and make this time meaningful.

STEVE WATTERS: I still remember as a kid being confused by the lyrics of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” The song starts well as Bing Crosby lists the many decorations, traditions, and toys of the season.

But just before the chorus he throws in the odd line: “And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again.” Huh? The Christmas season was only just beginning. What kind of parents are these?

When I became a dad, I started to get it. As soon as it began to look like Christmas, our kids would get amped up with excitement and start asking about holiday plans and passing along endless gift suggestions.

I realized then that the season my wife and I always loved had taken on a new level of stress. We felt the weight of going from being the primary recipients of Christmas joy to being the ones expected to produce that joy.

As the pace of activity and expectations grew, the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year felt like a gauntlet filled with strings of lights to replace, gifts to assemble, endless activities to pack in, Christmas photos to take for cards to make and to mail, and the occasional spilled eggnog to clean up.

In the midst of this experience one year, I remember looking over at my wife and whisper-singing: “and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again.”

I empathized with the lyric, and yet I didn’t want to be that dad from the song counting down to the return of the school routine.

This motivated me to more proactively plan the Christmas season and prioritize meaningful traditions—like driving to see lights while listening to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, building puzzles, watching favorite Christmas movies, and attending our church’s Christmas Eve service.

We discovered, though, that the most valuable priority we added was Advent reading. We started with Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. Our kids loved how Jotham’s adventures intersected with the nativity story over each day’s reading. As they grew older, we moved to Advent readings by John Piper, Paul Tripp, Sinclair Ferguson, and more.

Building our Christmas season around daily Advent readings produced benefits we didn’t anticipate.

At first it felt like just another thing to squeeze into the calendar, but increasingly, it set the pace for our Christmas season. The regular rhythm and anticipation guided us meaningfully throughout the month of December.

The readings also set our focus—directing our thoughts to why we celebrate Christ’s birth. And they helped me to see that we couldn’t produce the Christmas joy we wanted our children to have. It allowed us instead to point them to the One who offers everlasting joy.

Advent readings offered hope to me as well. Like when I did and said things that I’m sure left my kids looking forward to when my work days would start again. Thank God for Advent readings that emphasize the redemptive purposes of the baby in the manger. I needed the encouragement to confess my sin, ask for forgiveness, and hope in Christ again.

More than our gifts, festive activities, or holiday treats and feasts, our children need to see us hoping in the Christ of Christmas, especially in our lowest moments.

We can still expect challenges, disappointments, and messiness as it once again starts to “look a lot like Christmas,” but we don’t have to dread the season or secretly wish for a regular routine. The pace, focus, and hope of Advent readings can fuel our joy in Christ each day of the season.

We can lead and live in grace in such a way that when Advent draws to a close next month, we can change the song to say: “And mom and dad can hardly wait to do it all again.”

I’m Steve Watters.

REICHARD: Steve put together a list of potential Advent readings for families…and we’ve included those in today’s transcript and show notes.

Advent reading resources:

• Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide

• The Mystery Hidden for Ages by Sally Michael

• Good News of Great Joy by John Piper

• Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul Tripp

• Love Came Down at Christmas by Sinclair Ferguson

• Repeat the Sounding Joy by Christopher Ash

Recapturing the Glory of Christmas by Albert Mohler, Jr.

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