During 2024, our family will be intentionally celebrating the seasons of the church calendar. We are doing this as part of our work to become more self-disciplined. Having set rhythms helps us to structure our lives in a way that is helpful to all members of our family and that sets us on a path of growth and faithfulness. Following the rhythms of the church calendar helps us to find rhythms of life that anchor us in the story of God. We are living in God’s story, and we want to be a part of celebrating that story – both the story of the past, the present, and the future to come.
Why Follow the Church Calendar?
Both Micah and I grew up in and still attend Baptist churches. We are thankful for the rich foundation and heritage that our church upbringing, thanks to our parents’ faithfulness, has given us. In the church life we grew up in, the biggest celebrations of the church year were at Christmas and Easter. I knew a little about Advent and have memories of lighting Advent candles in church, but I did not know much about the season. I had also heard of Lent but never participated in it. Other than that, I did not know of any other seasons within the church year. This is new territory for both of us.
In October 2022, we experienced the loss of our second baby when I was 10 weeks pregnant. This utterly gut-wrenching loss left us in need of order amidst heartbreak and chaos. Praise God – He is a God of order. We discovered how helpful liturgies could be in pursuing order in our spiritual lives. We used books of liturgical prayers and books that put a liturgy into daily worship. We used books that spoke of everyday habits as liturgy, and day by day our God of order began to form us as people who take part in His story of order. This is where our interest in the church calendar began.
Parenting and the Church Calendar
As parents, we believe it is our job to train our children in righteousness. We believe the best way to begin is by teaching our children the story of God and talking about it over and over. In Deuteronomy 6, God commands His people,
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deut. 6:4-9 NIV)
God first commands His people to know Him as the Lord and to love Him with their whole beings. Then God commands them to teach their children about his commandments. As parents, we are given the great task of teaching our children the ways of the Lord. We are to talk about His story and His Word constantly. It should enrich the everyday lives of our children.
When I became a parent, I thought this would be an easy thing to do. If you are anything like me, it is not nearly as easy as I suspected. I have found that the best way to share the story of God with my children is to establish consistent rhythms of sharing it with them. That is why we are following the church calendar this year. As we walk through the church year together, our family will walk through the entire story of God and learn to rehearse it in our daily lives. We will fall more in love with God as we learn to repeat His story over and over again.
Journey With Us
I invite you to journey through the church calendar with our family. I am by no means an expert on any of this, but I am ready to jump in and learn. On Saturdays, you can expect to find a blog post about the current season we are observing and what our family has learned. Since the church year begins with Advent, I will take the next few weeks to reflect on the seasons of Advent and Christmastide that have already passed.
We will be using the book “Sacred Seasons” by Danielle Hitchen to help guide our journey. This book gives a fantastic introduction to the church calendar and has so many ideas of how to celebrate each season with children. If you’re interested in joining us, I highly recommend this resource as a starting point.
Friends, let’s find ourselves entrenched in the story of God this year. May the retelling of His story lead our families to find our place in it and help us to know Him and love Him more fully.