Merry Christmas! On Friday, I had a friend of mine, Spring, ask me for some advice. She wanted to know what I do to pass on the true meaning of Christmas to my children. That provoked a great deal of thought and I tell you, there's not just one thing that we do.
First, we have never celebrated Santa Claus. We always wanted the focus to be Jesus birth, not the big red jolly fellow. Secondly, instead of reading "twas the night before Christmas", we read the actual biblical account of Jesus' birth from the book of Luke. Then we talk about it, open forum style. That's it. After considering what we do, I thought, "There must be more!" but there's not.
I think that it would be great to do more. I would love to spend more time giving to the needy. It's just not my season for that, maybe when my youngest is a little older I'll add that in.
The truth is, my kids love the idea of receiving gifts and they look forward to that part of Christmas just like all the other kids out there. The idea is that we've planted seeds and each thing we add is like watering it. Now it's God's job to cause it to grow, not ours. After doing all you can do, just leave it in His hands and He will cause it to grow and bear fruit in its right season.
How about you? Do you have any helpful suggestions for my friend, Spring? If you do, please leave it in the comment section so we can all benefit from reading it!
I want to take this time to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!
Authors Note: The only other post that I will be running this week is the Thankful Thursday Meme. Then, I'll be back on Monday.
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11 comments:
The real message of Christmas is out there in so many ways. We often comment on people's outdoor decorations, as we're traveling in the car...pointing out manger scenes, angels, etc. The songs are everywhere, and you can easily bring up a line with your kids to talk about. (And they can learn the songs, too.)
We now have several kid-friendly nativity scenes with characters. Amazing how the Sunday School lessons and pageant scripts take on a new perspective over the years.
We do have Santa here, but, again, when we watch the shows, I'll try to pick out a "bigger" message for them than just he's the guy who brings the stuff....and you NEED STUFF?!!??!
Sonya, your thought that all of what we do comes down to planting seeds is right on. Just watch what you plant and when you plant...and let God do His work.
Merry Christmas to you, Sonya! You all enjoy a blessed time together....
Sonya, you all are awesome in how you are 'planting the seeds' for God to work with:-)
We always had Santa but we also always had the nativity and in fact my son collected nativity sets for a long time.
It's more challenging than ever these days to keep the right focus. It can be done if we keep our eye on the heavens -- looking for those angels who declared that history-changing birth over 2000 years ago.
Christmas blessings to all.
I think you gave your friend the best suggestions, just by the example you have set. You have it exactly right and when your children are grown they will instill those same values into their own children. I have seen it with my girls and their children. As long as the focus is on Jesus and He gets top priority, everthing else will just fall into place.
You seem like such a great mom and I can see the joy on your kids faces in the picture. They know they are loved.
In Him,
Beth
We had never celebrated or heard of Advent until someone told us about what it was, so we kind of "adopted" that and bought some candles and a candle holder and did that.
We made baby Jesus a birthday cake, the kids loved that.
We bought presents for an anonymous needy child through a program at our church. The kids loved helping and wrapping them. On Christmas morning we talked about the child that was opening their gifts that morning.
We went Christmas caroling. We helped decorate the church for Christmas.
We never made Santa a big deal. We told the kids the gifts came from us and not Santa.
Have a wonderful CHRISTmas!
I asked my 4 year old this week "Why do we celebrate Christmas" and she said "Because it is Jesus birthday." I was so proud that she had the right answer. Then she said "He was born on a table you know." (table...STABLE). well, at least she is getting the idea. LOL!
We have never celabrated Santa. I always felt it was the first lie we would be telling our daughter and I never wanted to start out that way.
We have a fire in the fireplace going on Christmas morning,just before Sydney gets up.Then my in-laws (now just my father in-law,his wife passed away 3 years ago) comes over for breakfast.
My husband reads out of Luke,right before we eat.
Merry Christmas to you and your family! What a beautiful family picture.
Blessings,
Tammy
When we were raising our children they knew at the start that Jesus was the reason for the season not Santa. While we weren't against santa we just didn't promote him as a part of Christian.
Christmas morning we rise early, gather around the nativity and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Either myself or my husband reads the Word aloud and we all hold hands and we each say a prayer of thanksgiving.
Christmas eve we drive around and look at all the lights on the houses. We started doing that when our children were young and we kept the tradition.
This year I want to add something new to our family so stay tuned...
Merry Christmas.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family.
I finally got to post today Read it when you get a chance. I need some prayers when you get time.
Love, Starr
Hey Girl,
You know I think that your advice is right on target!
I will be writing about this very thing tomorrow in my Final Plumb Christmas stor tomorrow!
All we can do is take evey opportunity captive tpo point our children to Christ. We do that by letting them see our own love for Him.
It is the Holy Spirit's job to then take those opportunities and inbed them in our children's hearts!
I love you my friend!
Pamela
Our kids are grown now, but one thing my Dad just recently started at our extended family gathering is having a gift for Jesus under the tree. We draw names to see who opens Jesus' gift. The gift is a $50 bill & the one who opens it is to give it to someone that Jesus might give it to -- a worthy cause or just someone who is in need or needs an extra blessing for some reason. It is a wonderful way to bring Jesus into the gift-giving scene at Christmas.
Sonya, hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family!
Oh we are home and I am I just now reading this. What wonderful comments. We have never done Santa either. My mother in-law wanted to but I nixed it from the start. We did an Advent calendar for the first time this year and it's going well. We have the tradition of driving around and looking at lights and this is the first year Nathan is noticing the nativity scene. I think it's a good start.
Great post. Thank you friend!
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