Noah and Shiloh were cowboy/cowgirls with their horses for halloween. Do we "celebrate" halloween? Um, maybe, we let our kids dress up (nothing scary, or gross or dead) and eat candy. We see it as a time to be creative and have fun and try to avoid all of the black, wicked, scary, dead stuff.
We painted polka dots in red, green and white. These are our Christmas wall hangings that replaced our harvest pictures. In gold and silver pen I wrote different names of Christ, but it didn't turn out very well. They are hanging up, just not easy to read. Do you see the advent wreaths behind Shiloh? My mom came up with that idea herself. Every Monday when she sits with the kids while Brian and I are at bible study she "lights" another candle with them. Brilliant! Next year I would love to be on the ball and do a Jesse Tree. I had never even heard of them until now.
Madeline is eleven months! In fact, she will be 12 months in just 11 days! She is a walking, screeching, blowing kisses, roaring, eating, waving, little stinker and we love her. Quoting her Auntie; "Madeline's personality did not develop as I thought it would. She was such an easygoing quiet baby." She is definitely NOT quiet now.
The day after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas. I love all of the soft twinkly lights and sparkly ornaments. What about santa you ask? We do not lead our children to believe that a fat man in a red suit will be bringing them gifts on Christmas Eve. We do hang stockings but those are for Brian and I to fill with little presents and Noah and Shiloh know that. I have a santa collection, it was started in memory of my great-grandmother who had a beautiful collection of St. Nicholas statues. I delighted in seeing her santas every year and very much enjoy my small collection.
I used to really worry about halloween and santa and the easter bunny and the effects of such things on my children but then I started reading Gospel-Powered Parenting by William Farley. While protection is a part of parenting it should not be the sole focus for biblical parents, Farley believes. His words really challenged me. We need to live like we believe in the attractiveness of the gospel and the power of the gospel over the things of this world. Do I need to worry that if I have a santa statue that my children will worship santa and be sucked into the commercialism of Christmas? NO, not if I live like Jesus is the most beautiful person ever. Do I need to worry that if I let my kids dress up on halloween that they will start to worship satan? NO, because the gospel is real and it's power is real and to quote Jesus "Take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33) Now, I believe that the true focus of Christmas should be Christ, not santa, but I do not need to protect my childen from santa. I need to humbly model the gospel in my life and in my relationship with them and that will be so attractive that they will not even glance at santa. Offensive not defensive parenting (for all you sports fans) is biblical parenting. And, actually there really was a St. Nicholas, a good man, someone worth remembering and honoring by sharing with our children the real story.
I will leave you with this bit of Christmas cheer. Love you all!
Best. Mom. Ever.
ReplyDeleteProbably because we had such an awesome mom... I loved these thoughts. Especially the bit about modeling a love for Christ above all else... I had always thought "equipping" kids to deal with stuff was better than constantly protecting... and I would say that modeling a love for Jesus above all is the best and only total equipping a person needs. Because then they will always be safe in His hands. "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" Jn. 10:28-29
Always praying for you and your... Love you much, much, much.
Auntie
Love that "no one can snatch them out of the Father's hand." Thanks for your comment. Do you love how spread out everything was?(I mean the text and pictures but can apply to content) Love you too
ReplyDeletejn 16:33 is my favorite verse!
ReplyDeletei know what you mean about being un-intentional. Being intentional is so ... tiring sometimes!
Ive been wanting to do a Jesse tree, but Im afraid Im too late this year. Maybe I should start one now for next year!
This was fun to read Sarah! I am so behind on my blog, I have often thought about writing a post about all the fun things I forgot to blog about. But of course I haven't gotten around to that post either :)
ReplyDeleteWe do Halloween too. I want to avoid all the scary stuff too, but Jason loves that kind of stuff (and obviously he isn't a Satan worshiper, like you mentioned. He just grew up loving scary movies.) I have at least convinced him that while the kids are little, they should be dressing cute and not scary, so it's a compromise. Kylie, however, finds ghosts and monsters to be hilarious. She must be her father's daughter.
We don't celebrate Santa either. He just rubs me the wrong way. If you are nice, then you get gifts, which is completely different than receiving the FREE, UNEARNED gift of salvation that Jesus gave us. And another fear I have is that when the child learns that Santa isn't real, they might wonder what other parts about Christmas are just made up? So, I want my kids to know that Jesus was a real person born on this earth, but that he was also God and that is the story of Christmas. I don't want them to think it was all made up also, just like Santa. My parents never taught me about Santa, but my mom did have a Santa collection also. I think the difference is when you push your kids to believe in Santa. (And of course, I'm talking about the pretend North pole dwelling Santa, not St. Nicholas of course!)
Sorry, I left such a long comment. Santa's been on my mind lately and I've almost written a blog post about him myself. Almost...