Each of us has some bad habit, some proclivity for sin, no matter how minor, that, if it is allowed to flourish, can take us farther from god. Identify those works of darkness and cast them out of our lives. Christ came in great humility to our earth, and it should be with great humility that we go to him this Christmas season. Penitent for all those sins we have committed this past year. Asking god's forgiveness for all our wrongdoing and knowing, with complete conviction, the love of god for each of us and the assurance of his forgiveness.
Advent is a serious season, a time for repentance and a time for meditation.
But it is also a glorious time. It is a time for celebration. A time of not just expectation, but of glorious expectation. Our Saviour came to us here on earth, but he did come as a baby, and as we think of he and his mother and father, in the barn with the baby lying in the manger we cannot help the feeling of tenderness and sentimentality that creeps into our thoughts. So much of our church music is focussed on the exuberant joy that the season brings.