as my students and i entered into the season of advent, i have been struggling with taking their attention away from our elf on a shelf and placing it in its rightful place: centered on the birth of jesus. as i thought about ways to help my students fully understand what the season of advent is all about i started to think about the meaning of the word itself. “advent” comes from the latin word “adventus” meaning “a coming, approach, or arrival.” essentially, advent is a time of waiting. want to know who hates waiting? me. i always have. but you want to know who hates waiting more than i do? my kids. my group of nuggets has a hard time waiting for everything. making it to 9:30 am snack time is a daily struggle. they can’t ever wait for me to fully explain directions during math and language arts, and waiting for a turn at the drinking fountain always ends in a few too many “kind reminders” to the person ahead of them to hurry up. by nature, humans don’t wait very well. our culture has instilled in us this “gotta have it right now” attitude and being told we have to wait makes us frustrated and upset. god knew this about us and our nature and he created a few things that force us to wait. think about plants and crops. a farmer sows his seeds and then has to wait patiently for what will sprout. we wait for the leaves to change in the autumn and we wait for the sun to rise each morning. nothing we do will speed up the process. we just have to wait. i decided that i wanted my students to wait. wait for something amazing. if they felt personally what it’s like to wait for something great then maybe they’d have a better sense of what god’s people felt way back before jesus was born. i set off to my happy place, target, in search of the perfect thing with which to torture my kids. i saw it immediately: the holiday oreos. packaged beautifully with their red crème filling and cute penguin designs. sweet success. on monday the fun began. i casually placed an oreo on each child’s desk during a lesson. those happy goobers thought they could eat it right away! “you have to wait,” was my only instruction. WAIT!? are you for serious, miss d!? dixie chick serious, friends. we proceeded throughout the entire morning and each time i was questioned i simply said, “you have to wait.” at one point i went around and video-taped the kids. asking them how it felt to wait for something wonderful. awful. terrible. frustrating. ‘ after lunch i finally relieved them of their agony. as they were munching with black and red mustaches i asked them again, how it felt to wait. we talked about how it was difficult seeing the oreo. having it so close and not being able to take it. i explained that this is exactly how god’s people felt waiting for jesus. imagine hearing about something over and over again and waiting for years and years. it would indeed feel awful, terrible, and frustrating. perhaps that’s why the time of advent is so important. we are honoring the people who had to wait for so long. honoring their frustrations. honoring their faith. waiting is hard. it’s not fun. but when the reward is as amazing as salvation…well, it’s worth the wait. jesus is worth the wait. and in first and second grade, so are holiday oreos. merry christmas. love, miss d and her not-so-patient nuggets
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