What Am I Supposed To Teach My Kid About Santa? Guess What? I Don't Care.


I've worked with students a long time...ok, so it's been decades. As a pastor, children's pastor, educator, veteran parent, writer, and more I have found my opinion sought after quite a bit throughout the years. The season we're entering now was at no loss for controversy and debate as parents grappled with how to handle jolly ol' Saint Nicholas. Parents have often asked me for my take on everything from Santa Claus, to Pokémon, to Harry Potter, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and the list goes on.

We love to major on the minors.

You know what no parent ever asks me? How do I teach my child to love and serve others. 

I've known parents who raised amazing God fearing children who put their children to bed on Christmas Eve telling them to go to sleep because Santa Claus was on the way. I've known parents who raised children in a home where sin and carnality ran rampant and the kids had no love for God, but rest assured they knew there was no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Do we really believe heaven and hell are riding on whether you believe in the Tooth Fairy as a kid or not?

Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10. Jesus came to set us free from sin. Sin and an abundant life never go together. The abundant life that is found only through relationship with him is lived out in two primary ways. Jesus taught them to us on an occasion when some religious leaders tried to trick him.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

Jesus never threw in, "Oh, and the third one is don't teach your children any fairy tales."

For my kids Santa was just a fun story. He was a character like Shrek, or Spider-Man, or Charlie Brown. You don't have to do what we did. I heard one children's pastor say once, "I really don't care what you do with Santa Claus." I couldn't agree more.

You know what I do care about? Teaching children to love God and to love who God loves. Because when Jesus was asked about what really matters he was strangely silent about Elf on a Shelf. Yet, he had plenty to say about how your child treats their classmates, and how you and I treat others. Both those who look and think like us, as well as those who are nothing like us at all. 

 Christmas is a great time to teach about giving, loving, and serving. Those are things that really matter.

Following the Son,
James A Williams



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Get The Rebound

Image
If you've ever played or watched basketball you know that rebounding is a huge part of the game. If you're unfamiliar with the sport rebounding is quite simply getting the ball when a shot is missed. You can't score without the ball which makes the play of great importance. It's not unusual for a team with a higher shooting percentage to lose a basketball game because they were out rebounded. On the court what you do when you miss can be even more important than making shots. It's true in life as well. Everyone misses shots, but that doesn't mean you've lost the game. Get the rebound. "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again." Proverbs 24:16. People won't always give you the chance to rise again. For some your shortcoming is how they'll label you forever. Get the rebound anyway.  It was the historian Froude who wrote, "The worth of a man must be measured by his life, not by his failure under a singular a...
Read more

What’s In Your Cart?

Image
On this day in 1939, Sylvan Goldman who owned the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain got an idea. He was trying to think of a way for his customers to transport more groceries around his stores. He attached 4 wheels to the legs of a wooden folding chair, and then attached a basket to the seat. The shopping cart was born.  Before this shopping trips to the Humpty Dumpty or the Piggly Wiggly would be limited to what you could carry in your arms. I wonder if Sylvan’s original patent stated that one of the wheels was to either not spin or rapidly shake back and forth? It’s possible that this is some modern improvement on his original design. However it happened the carts keep getting bigger. When I bring my groceries to the check out counter I sometimes use the self check out. I don’t like the self checkout because the computer keeps telling me I put things in the bagging area when I didn’t. When I get a real person they will often ask this profound question. “Did you find ev...
Read more

Mercy

Image
We visited our nephew and his family last weekend. They have three boys, and witnessing their interactions brought back memories of both fun and difficult days of raising our boys. Sometimes when my boys were young I felt like all I did was discipline them. It seemed at times like we couldn't make it through a meal, homework, or even play time, without a fight breaking out, some inappropriate comment, backtalk, or a hundred other random things they could find to do to push their Mother and I over the line. I remember calmly saying things like, "I need for you to understand that I can feel anger welling up within me."  Sometimes this would result in corrected behavior, other times they would look at me as though I were speaking Chinese (I know this isn't actually a language, please don't write me a letter). I realize spanking children is controversial, so I tried not to spank my sons over 3 or 4 times a day (That's called hyperbole). On one occ...
Read more