Santa’s Presents and Christ’s Presence
This Christmas will be the first that I will share the tradition of Santa as a Mom. First, because Sophie is now old enough to participate. First, because Cammie and Courtney’s father and I made a decision to teach them that Santa was a fun but make-believe part of Christmas. First, because this tradition is important to my husband and marriage includes compromise.
I thought I would struggle more with this concept. I knew long before Sophie was concieved that Joe wanted Christmas for his child to include Santa. And I had stronger convictions over another holiday largely due to a serious incident that happened to me when I was three. But that’s another holiday, another post. Perhaps I’ll share that next October. The point is that we compromised.
I prayed a lot over this issue. And I have peace regarding this decision. However, I don’t want to lose sight of the primary reasons we chose to exclude “Santa” from Cammie and Courtney. One reason being that our children are taught to believe in these beings—Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy—and then one by one, they learn they are not real after all. All the while we are teaching them to believe in Jesus, whom they cannot physically see. The difference, however, is that we have genuine relationships with Jesus. Introducing Him to Cammie and Courtney went beyond sight. He needs no one to stand proxy for Him at the mall. Hopefully His Presence in our lives will be undeniable to Sophie as well. If not, something is indeed wrong.
Another concern was and still is the message of “getting” overshadowing the reality of what Christmas really is. What about the kid down the road who can’t understand why he was denied that special gift that his friend and many others received? But life is full of disappointments, right? And the same thing can be said of birthdays. Still, it makes my heart ache.
Over commercializing and the “gimme” mindsets have come and gone in my household throughout the years. And Santa could not be blamed. Every year do we not ask ourselves the same questions? How do I keep the holiday stress from taking the joy out of Christmas?
The pressures are overwhelming. We so want to give to our children and YES, teach them that giving is indeed the meaning behind the reason for this season. The ultimate gift was sent from on High, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
After we were married, right away Joe and I decided to keep the girls’ gifts down to three as Jesus received three gifts from The Wise Men. Of course, they needn’t look for such costly gifts fit for a King. But then there are the stockings. So was it really just three gifts? Hmmm…
And my thoughts on Santa continued…he isn’t omnipresent! God is! He doesn’t “really” know their names. He’s supposed to. At least that’s how the story goes. But you plop a kid on his lap and it’s the first thing he asks them. Jesus knows their names. And why does Santa have to get credit for all of our hard work? Oh, I could go on and on but the point is clearly not condemnation over Santa.
Although the girls have made it clear what their expectations were for Sophie —”You ARE letting Sophie have Santa?”—they never appeared to be deprived or cheated. And as far as I know, I never had to worry about them “spilling the goods” to their friends and classmates. In fact, one of Courtney’s friends was quite angry when she found out the truth. Mostly with her mother, but also with Courtney who remained silent as she knew it was not her place to tell her. My sister, Jamie, found out the truth about The Easter Bunny when I was pregnant with Cammie. She was seven. She was not happy. “Why’d you say there was a rabbit if there isn’t a rabbit?” she asked my Mom. Most of all, she was perplexed. This weighed in on me as a woman with child.
So I was sure to share with my girls the Christmas story. Yet, I faced a moment once again with a perplexed child. Only this time, it was over the birthday Boy’s party. We often made birthday cakes for Jesus and sang Happy Birthday. One Christmas when Cammie was about three or four, she became quite upset when she realized that not only was the Guest of Honor not going to be present (at least not in the flesh), but neither were his friends. “Where’s Moses? Where’s all of His friends?”
And that’s what recently got me thinking. Where IS the Guest of Honor in all of our celebrating? Am I really including Him? With our without Santa, I’ve been guilty of getting caught up in the hype.
So now, as I find myself treading new territory and reflect on the sad condition of our world and the lack in the body of Christ, I want more than ever to move beyond the reality of my circumstances to the truth. This season will come and go. I want to give. I delight in giving my children gifts just as our Father delights in giving us His Kingdom. But if I neglect to share Him, it is all for naught. If I allow stress over the presents, I just might miss His Presence.
This Christmas I’ll step aside and allow the fat man in the red suit to take credit for granting the heart’s desires of my child.
But the main “Presence” I want to share… is Christ’s.
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Thank you!
I am in fact glad to read this weblog posts which consists of plenty of valuable data, thanks for providing these kinds of statistics.
Hi there, yeah this post is genuinely good and I have learned lot
of things from it on the topic of blogging. thanks.
Howdy this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if
blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get guidance from
someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed
reading it, you happen to be a great author. I will make certain to bookmark your blog and will come back
later on. I want to encourage yourself to continue your great work, have a
nice holiday weekend!
I like what you guys tend to be up too. This type of
clever work and coverage! Keep up the fantastic works guys I’ve included you guys
to my personal blogroll.
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering
which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting fed up of WordPresss because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives forr another platform.
I would be fantasztic if yoou could point me in the directjon of a good platform.
Take a look at my web page – 카지노사이트
Wonderful post however , I was wanting to know if you could write a litte
more on this subject? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit
further. Many thanks!
Группа объявлений Саратова в телеграмме. Постинг частных объявлений бесплатно!
Коммерческие и рекламные объявления, согласно правил группы.
Подпишись, чтобы быть в курсе.. https://t.me/Saratov_obyavlenia
If you desire to take a ggreat deal frdom this piece of writing then yoou hsve to apply such techniques to your won blog.
My blog :: Elektrotechnik
Hi to every body, it’s my first go to see of this blog; this website includes
amazing and really good material for readers.
Hello! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good old
room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him.
Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
This is very attention-grabbing, You’re an overly skilled blogger.
I have joined your feed and sit up for in the hunt for more of your magnificent post.
Also, I’ve shared your website in my social networks
Hi there! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site
with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information.
I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Fantastic blog and superb design.
It’s great that you are getting ideas from this paragraph as well
as from our dialogue made here.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but after
I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr…
well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say wonderful blog!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about tạo tài khoản fb88.
Regards
I am truly glad to glance at this web site posts which consists of tons of useful facts, thanks for providing these data.
Heya! I’m at work browsing your blog from my
new apple iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Keep up the great work!
If you are going for best contents like myself, simply go to see this
web page every day since it offers feature contents,
thanks
Ahaa, its nice discussion regarding this piece of writing at
this place at this web site, I have read all that, so at this time
me also commenting at this place.
wonderful issues altogether, you just received a logo
new reader. What might you recommend in regards to
your submit that you made a few days in the past?
Any sure?
Ahaa, its good dialogue on the topic of this piece of writing here
at this webpage, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting at this place.
I want to express my appreciation to this writer for bailing me out of this instance. Because of exploring through the online world and getting views that were not productive, I thought my life was gone. Being alive devoid of the answers to the problems you’ve resolved as a result of your entire article is a critical case, and the kind that could have in a wrong way damaged my career if I had not discovered your web blog. Your training and kindness in controlling all the stuff was tremendous. I’m not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t encountered such a stuff like this. It’s possible to now look ahead to my future. Thank you so much for the reliable and result oriented help. I won’t be reluctant to propose your web page to any person who ought to have direction about this situation.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I’m hoping the same high-grade site post from you in the upcoming as well. Actually your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own site now. Actually the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a great example of it.
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me.
Thanks!
Hello! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues
with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing months of hard
work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to prevent hackers?
I was extremely pleased to find this site. I wanted to thank
you for your time due to this wonderful read!! I definitely savored every bit
of it and I have you saved to fav to check out new stuff
in your site.
This article is in fact a good one it assists new the web viewers, who are wishing in favor of blogging.
I like the helpful info you provide in your articles.
I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.
I’m quite sure I will learn many new stuff right here!
Good luck for the next!
Thanks very nice blog!
https://roommx.com/
https://roommx.com/
Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the pictures on this blog loading?
I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic however , I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa?
My website addresses a lot of the same topics as yours and I feel
we could greatly benefit from each other. If you are interested
feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from
you! Fantastic blog by the way!
https://roommx.com/
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my blog thus i came to
“return the favor”.I am trying to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
This is a topic that is near to my heart… Best wishes!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
Do you have a spam problem on this blog; I also
am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; we have developed some nice practices
and we are looking to swap techniques with others, please shoot
me an email if interested.
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I
stumbleupon every day. It’s always interesting to read through content from other authors
and use a little something from their sites.
Hi there, all is going perfectly here and ofcourse every one is sharing data,
that’s truly good, keep up writing.
Link exchange is nothing else however it is just placing the other person’s webpage link on your page at appropriate place
and other person will also do similar in support of
you.
wonderful points altogether, you just won a brand new reader.
What might you suggest about your put up that you just made some days
ago? Any certain?
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit,
but other than that, this is magnificent
blog. An excellent read. I will definitely be back.
After going over a few of the articles on your blog, I honestly
like your way of writing a blog. I saved it to my bookmark webpage
list and will be checking back soon. Please check out my
website too and let me know your opinion.
If some one wants to be updated with most up-to-date technologies after that he must be pay a visit this site
and be up to date daily.
I think this is among the such a lot significant information for me.
And i am happy reading your article. But wanna commentary on few basic things,
The website taste is perfect, the articles is actually nice :
D. Good task, cheers
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard
against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any
tips?
At this moment I am going away to do my breakfast, after
having my breakfast coming yet again to read further
news.
Asking questions are in fact pleasant thing if you are not understanding
something entirely, however this article offers fastidious understanding even.