Advent Beads | Creating a Holiday Prayer Rhythm
“Of all spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with God.”
Advent is quite possibly my favorite part of the Christian year. I love the build-up to Christmas and the anticipation that comes with waiting for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises represented in the birth of Jesus Christ. I love the fact that a new year means a new start and that new starts begin with an opportunity to prepare our hearts for all that God has for us in the coming year. In order for the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts for the new year, we must consistently create space to be in communion with God. As we just saw in the words of Richard Foster, prayer is one of the best way to consistently participate in God’s presence. So then, our Advent craft and family activity for this year is focused around prayer.
Consistent Prayer Practice
Whether you have seen them in a movie or used them in your home growing up, prayer beads are a fantastic way to focus, prioritize, and practice prayer with your family. Kids love creating their own set of prayer beads and the tactile nature helps all of us not only remember what to pray for, but to consistently create just enough time for prayer. I’ll talk more about the beads themselves in a moment, but in the meantime, let’s talk about rhythm. During the holiday season things can get very busy and often, we can get so focused on preparing for the celebration that we forget to prepare our hearts for the one we are celebrating. As we talk about in many of our materials here at Constant Source, a consistent rhythm of spiritual practice is more important than how long you spend in the Bible or in prayer each day. Especially with kids, establishing a habit of focusing on our faith journey is most successful when we touch upon it each day. Therefore, as you enter into this Advent season, the challenge is to create space daily to prayer together. Gathering, praying, and preparing for a few minutes a day will dramatically shift the way your family encounters God this Holiday season.
Prayer Beads
Contemporary Evangelical culture isn’t always mindful of the way they talk about things that feel foreign. So, depending on your upbringing, you may be unsure about the idea of prayer beads. But prayer beads are a tried and true tool for spiritual discipline that has been used by Christians for over a millennium. Recorded references to prayer beads being used by Christians go back as far as the 3rd century when monastic communities would knot rope to create a tool to count prayers. Sometimes referred to as rosaries, prayer beads act as a focus for intentional meditation or prayer. Typically, a prayer is offered for each bead and sometimes the exact prayer may be repeated multiple times. Prayer beads encourage repetition and tactile focus to help center us in prayer.
Advent Beads
Advent beads are prayer beads infused with a dash of holiday spirit that helps us focus on the key themes of Advent. Often when you see prayer beads, they have overt religious symbology like a cross, a trinity knot, or a fish. These are great, but to make this fun and special for our kids, using beads that are more festive helps set the mood for Advent and sets this season aside as special and intentional. You will notice that there are a few different kinds of beads used: charms, larger beads, and filler beads. Each of the larger beads represents one of the seven themes of Advent, while the filler beads play an important role when we pray.
Advent Themes
Love | focus bead
Joy | focus bead
Peace | focus bead
Hope | focus bead
Waiting & Anticipation | main charm
Associated with the coming of Jesus Christ
Gratitude | charm
Associated with the fruition of God’s promises.
Renewal & Preparation | charm
Associated with Holy Spirit’s work in us.
Supplies (per set)
24 in. of Stretch Magic Jewelry cord (example)
1 big charm bead (example)
2 smaller charm beads (example)
4 focus beads (example)
Filler beads (example)
Seven Prayers of Advent Handout (Download Below)
Crafting Your Beads
There isn’t a right or wrong way to make prayer beads. Ideally, you want to create something that makes you excited to prayer and helps you focus on praying for different things. Typically, you want to switch between filler beads, charms, and focus beads to create balance and to spread out different foci for prayer. Below is the process I used to create the Advent Beads as seen in the image above.
First, take your pre-cut jewelry cord and pinch the two ends together to form a loop on the opposite end of the cord. Run the loop end through your main charm and then take the loose ends and run them through the loop. This should secure the main charm in the middle of your cord
Next, add two filler beads by running both ends of the cords through each. Then tie a basic knot by taking both ends of the cord and then threading one cord over the other and then pull them tight. (Just like the first stage of tying your shoe). Do this three times.
Now your first three beads should be secure and we will focus on finishing each side.
Choose one end of the cord and thread beads in the following order:
Filler - Filler - Focus - Filler - Filler - Filler - Smaller Charm - Filler - Filler - Filler - Focus - Filler - Filler
Repeat on the other side
Then tie a basic knot again three times, like above, and then you are done!
Using Your Beads
Ahead of time, come up with a list of people that your family wants to commit to praying for in this season and explain to your kids that in saying their name you are praying that each of these people would be filled with love, joy, peace, and hope in this season.
Set aside 5 minutes a day during this season to pray through the seven themes of Advent using your Advent beads with your family.
Utilizing the Seven Prayers of Advent handout, start with your main charm and read the prayer of waiting and anticipation aloud together.
Then, say a prayer for each bead in clockwise order.
Whenever you come across a focus bead or charm, read aloud the next prayer in order.
For each filler bead, say the name of a person that your family decided to be praying for in this season. You can take turns saying names or you can switch who is reading off the names each time you gather for prayer.
Download Seven Prayers of Advent
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