The Advent Challenge

On Sunday's post I mentioned "The Advent Challenge" that Liv and I were planning. We have officially begun and thus far it has been incredibly successful!

So what is "The Advent Challenge"? Great question! The Advent Challenge is a set of goals and

My Advent Challenge Journal

habits that Liv and I set for ourselves during this time of preparation. Sunday's gospel reading was definitely an inspirational reading to kick off the Advent season with. Mark 13:33 "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come." This is one of the truest statements to ever reach my ears. We never know when Jesus will return to us, and for this reason we should ALWAYS be prepared for that day.

The object of the Advent Challenge for me and Liv is to help us be prepared for that day, every day of our lives. Liv and I tend to struggle with remaining positive during trying times and keeping a loving and kind attitude toward everyone in every situation, so for this year we decided to focus our challenge on love, joy and positivity.

1) Read and reflect on scripture every day! Not only does our place of work give out devotionals, the Internet is a great tool for finding different Advent readings and reflections outside of the standard mass readings. Reading and interpreting scripture is not always the easiest task, especially if you've forgotten some of what you learned in your Theology classes, so I always try to leave plenty of time for figuring out what the verses mean contextually and for me in the modern world.

2) No negativity. Whatsoever. Literally. Any time we catch ourselves thinking negatively, about a situation, a person, the day, or whatever, we implement tools to turn those thoughts into positive things. For example, when we are face-to-face with an event that is stressful and incredibly challenging, instead of being scared out of our minds, we step back to try to approach the event from a different perspective. Is it really as bad as you believe it to be? Is it a problem that can be solved? What steps can you take to get through it?

Additionally this positivity applies to people. Every day we cross paths with people who make us deeply frustrated and sometimes we have the urge to complain about them. Through this challenge, every time we catch ourselves thinking or speaking negatively about someone, we must stop and immediately list three positive things about the person. Saying "They have nice eyes" does not count. The positive statement must be of equal weight to the negative one!

3) Write a quote or prayer in your reflections every day. For me these have been positive or inspirational quotes that give me a little boost to keep going every day! I also filled my journal with some of my favorite verses or positivity quotes for a surprise when I open my journal every so often.

My "I am thankful for..." cards

4) Write down one thing you are thankful for each day. I typically do this throughout the day on the little cards I made and look at them again at night so I go to bed grateful for the things in my life!

In addition to that, I have my own personal Advent Challenge. Advent is a time of preparation, not necessarily sacrifice, but some of my every day behaviors interfere with my ability to really prepare my heart, mind and soul for the coming of Jesus. With that in mind, I decided to sacrifice doing social networking on my phone. I almost never get on social media when I'm at the computer, but whenever I'm bored I open up Facebook and scroll through my feed or something like that. So I moved all my apps to a folder tucked away on the very last page and in the place where those apps were located before, I put more thoughtful and productive apps like my "Prayers" app.

Its not too late to get started with a challenge of your own! Also check out Alex at Radiating Sunshine to see what she's doing for Advent this year!

Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come! ~Mark 13:33

Happy Advent!
Kay