November 1
Scripture: Luke 1:46-48
Welcome!
Welcome to your FortheFours weekly family devotional! For November, we are going to be studying Mary’s song in Luke 1, known as the Magnificat. As you may know, this is a part of the Christmas story. If you are anything like my husband, a firm believer that all Christmas related activities can only happen after Thanksgiving, I understand. However…I will argue that the Magnificat is a demonstration of Mary’s thankful heart to the Lord, thus making it appropriate November content. If your Christmas decorations are already up, I commend that as well.
Magnificat means “glorifies.” Mary is praising God for what He is doing in her as she carries Christ, but she is also praising God for His character. Her soul is magnifying God because she has been changed to her core. She praises God and recognizes him as the holy one, the mighty one, and the merciful one. We will look at these attributes of God over the next few weeks. All of these thoughts in this paragraph stem from, and are better articulated by, Tim Keller in this sermon, “How to Sing at Christmas.”
Themes and Thoughts ….
(suggestions to navigate the devo with ease)
Open:
The attached open question for the week is asked because Mary has recently had the biggest surprise in her life. Clearly her response is admirable. She is not complaining that this divine teen pregnancy is changing her life forever, but she is praising God in this unforeseen circumstance. How do you and I respond to even the smaller surprises of life? Not that this has to all be discussed with the family but good to know where the question is headed…
Areas of focus:
While each age group has specific questions, here are the broadly intended areas of focus for each group…
Littles:
Main focus is 1. Who is Mary? 2. What does it mean to praise God? The littles devotional questions center on children learning these truths.
Bigs:
Bigs also need to know who Mary is, but we’ll take it a step further with them and try to help them put themselves in Mary’s shoes to see her role and response.
Grownups:
Similar to bigs, we will focus on the situation through Mary’s lens. With this lens, my hope is that it will prompt us to both conviction and praise in our own lives.
User Update:
[I will close each week with a glimpse of what this devotion looked like in our family. It may be a win we had, a question asked, or a struggle we had. For the sake of the privacy of my children, I won’t share names or specifics but want to hold our family accountable and give you a glimpse into what is and isn’t working for us!]
“Magnificat Coloring Sheet” -Anonymous Rector Child
We started huddled on the floor of the nursery with someone in tears. We ended with marker on the rug, marker on the dresser, and a baseball whistle that appeared out of nowhere. We (the adults) were tired and ready for bedtime. Even so, we talked about what it means to glorify God. For my 4 and 5 year olds we discussed ways to praise God, and we did praise hands with the two year old (that was really just some raising the roof).
And some of the moments when I thought they were the most checked out were when I heard the most profound things from them. Praise God that He can work through our tired and hurried selves. May we rest in the truth that He is working in your family, even when evidence of that work feels buried.
Thanks to those who made it this far! If you are a paid subscriber, keep scrolling for attached devotion. Regardless, I hope you can reflect on the Lord’s graciousness and mindfulness towards you as you go about your week. You’ll be hearing back from me next Friday!
-Anne