by Mindcleaner takes up a subject that I usually only tackle around Christmas time— the comparison between God and Santa Claus. He quotes a writer, Amanda, who takes the whole idea and explains exactly why we don’t do Santa Claus in our home, and she brings the point home. She states that parents have two reasons for having a Santa Claus– one being to get kids to be good around Christmas and the other is because it’s cute to see child-like faith ( something she labels “childish belief” ).
It’s interesting that Jesus himself said that the kingdom of heaven was made up of people with child like faith. Amanda turns it into “childish belief” to ridicule it, but there is nothing like the faith a child has in his parents, his home, and the love that he is shown.
Setting a child up for a series of faith shattering events is kinda like dating being practicing for divorce. It can have that effect, or it might not, but it something that we do not choose to do.
The problem with Amanda’s assessment is that when Christ enters a life, He changes it. When prayers are made to God with His will in mind, they are answered. People can look around and see His handiwork. He’s not one that just appears for a day and then is gone for the rest of the year, spying on you to see when you’ll mess up.
We should never outgrow Jesus, but we should outgrow needing to be like the world.
I won’t do Santa Claus in my house either. Too dangerous to a blessing’s (that’s child, for anyone unfamiliar with that phrase) trust and their soul.
Unfortunately, the trend in Christendom today is to be more and more like the world, instead of being less like them.
I know a few people who “do” the Santa Claus thing and they manage it pretty well. My family, for one does not do Santa Claus. We may color his picture but we always “pretend” Santa. And we do not have Santa give our children gifts. All gifts are given by family members(from Dad, from Mom, from Aunt so and so, etc.)
Neither my husband or I grew up believing in Santa and we had wonderful, delightful childhoods! Some people act like we are basically denying our children a right by not forcing Santa down their throats…but we have concerns similar to the ones you’ve mentioned.
Even though I know plenty of families who’ve handled the Santa issue and their children have done wonderfully in accepting Jesus as real and Santa as pretend when they finally found out the truth, we’ve just decided not to risk it. Besides, our children don’t really miss it at all! They still love Christmas but look at is as Jesus’ Birthday more than they would if the focus was on Jolly Ole Saint Nick!
Nice post. I’m enjoying your blog!
Thanks for the nice comments! I thought it funny, in a way, that while we were out looking for a Christmas tree last year they had a man in a Santa suit and my kids were afraid of him! I like the ability to have my children realize that their parents love them like Christ loves them through being honest with them. There’s nothing wrong with make-believe, but why make a child go through the whole process of finding out what they believed in was not real… That could be tragic!