Sinful things that children are taught

I have an honest question. Since your children do not believe in Santa Claus; do you exchange gifts at Christmas?

If so; why? It is Jesus' birthday. Souldn't He be receiving gifts instead of us? How do you explain to your kids why they are receiving gifts that rightfully belong to Jesus?

I am like Helen; I used a mixture of both when my children were very young. They soon came to know the truth, but the former had not been a lie because of the way we explained it to them from the beginning.

Actually, I don't think kids really care where the gifts come, from parents or Santa Claus, as long as they get them.

Blessings,
Sue

 

You made some very good points Helen. My biggest concern with SC is that we go through so much effort to convince our kids that he does some things that simply are not true. Milk and cookies (I always enjoy them ), leaving a few gifts unwrapped and on the mantle that SC "left", etc. I just don't want my kids to realize that mom and dad went through an aweful lot of effort to lie to them about him coming to our house in the wee hours of the night and doing his duty. As my kids age, my fear (a slight one) is that they will figure, "hey Dad and Mom were (lying, kidding, teasing) about SC and TEB, are they lying about Jesus too?"

The one point I have shared with my 8 year old son is that SC was a real man who loved Jesus and gave gifts to children because of his love for Jesus. Others caught wind of Saint Nickolaus' good deeds and began doing so in neighboring towns and it has spread worldwide although the world forgets why SC did what he did. We give gifts to each other because we want to show our love for others as well. I'm not sure how accurate I am about the historical SC but it's probably more accurate than the story we tell kids today. It is a lot of fun and something that our family does enjoy with the kids plus we will share with them the whole truth and nothing but the truth with our two younger kids when they get older.

I am much less concerned with including SC discussion/belief into my family because we stress Jesus and his birth during the year and particularly at Christmas time. What I am concerned with is the children from homes where Jesus is not taught. Parents don't "have" to discuss Jesus and his birth at Christmas time because they can switch the focus of the holiday to SC and be done with it. Same thing goes with resurrection Sunday (Easter to the world). Many non-church-attending, non-God-following parents can talk just about TEB and ignore Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

If there was no SC and TEB traditions, there is a better chance that parents would have to share the true meaning of those holidays.

Thanks for the discussion. I'm enjoying (and learning from) it.

 

Thanks, Sue, and some excellent points, JC. I think you and I did (are doing, in your case!) pretty close to the same things with our kids. They really do feel 'grown up' when they find out they are ready to 'understand more' and that we are confident of their ability to handle what we are saying.

Regarding Christmas, I'm always grateful when the carols that mention Jesus and the nativity are played anywhere in public, simply because it does raise SOME awareness in SOME people! But you are right about SC and el bunnyo forcing anything else to take a back seat! On the other hand, on both those holidays we have pagan and Christian celebrations piggy-backing in together, so people do make a choice about what to pay attention to.

In a way, we might see something of the same with all our holidays. How many people concentrate on their thankfulness (or even ARE thankful) at Thanksgiving? It's a time for family and turkey and, oh yeah, a long time ago there were some Pilgrims and Indians and they all got together.... -- a pretty washed out bit of story that is anchored in nothing in the kids' minds. Probably the same with a lot of adult minds!

(I apologize for those who are not Americans here, as I am referring to the American holidays I know, but I'm sure you can see the same with your country's holidays.)

Consider 4th of July. Picnics, fireworks, parties at the poolside and, oh yeah, a long time ago we got free from the British. That's nice -- pass the lemonade, please. The desperation of that struggle on both sides, the sense of 'right' on both sides, the blood that was shed -- all of it -- take a back seat now.

Take your pick of the other holidays and look at them. In every single case, the more serious aspects of the 'day off' are more and more buried in the excuse to party or eat or whatever.

Getting back to the topic of the thread, and I do think this is all part of it, what do we teach our children? Do we tell them what all these things are about or do we just pass the lemonade, too?

I know I wasn't always faithful. Labor Day was always a time of beginning of school for us. That is where my concentration was, as a teacher! Thanksgiving here in America marks the beginning of the Christmas season, and sometimes it is hard to get away from that.

I think the right and the good is almost always the uphill, rockier way. Raising children well is the same. You want them wise, but not paranoid. You want them discerning, but not snobby. You want them to become mature but never have painful experiences, too! How much to protect them?

And how do parents do it without wisdom from the Lord? As many goofs as I made as a mom (probably about the average for most parents!), how do folks do it when they don't have the Lord to turn to at the end of the day so they can pour out their concerns and heart-feelings regarding this awesome task of parenting? How do they do it without the courage and compassiona and wisdom and patience and everything He alone gives?

And when they are teens and some rebel anyway, how do they cope? I remember going to the Lord in tears and asking "Why? -- What went wrong?"

And then remembering He, the perfect parent, had a little problem with Adam and Eve, too...

So we stumble on, making mistakes as we go, and the kids keep loving and trusting us anyway. And, if you are as blessed as I have been with some of my six, by the time they are past the mid-twenties, they are no longer your children, but your brothers and sisters in the Lord and some of the closest friends you could ever have. My oldest will be 30 this year and he has been calling me a lot recently about a Bible study he is leading at his church with some of the men, and asking me for some input on some issues. But what is amazing now is that I am learning much more from him than he is from me! His insights as a young man are truly astounding me and pushing me to some new horizons of thinking and understanding.

What a gift from a "child!" And even though I will often close off our phone conversations with something like "I love ya', kid," we both know that he is very comfortable in a leadership position and that I also am comfortable taking a back seat to that in a number of ways. It's an incredible thing to feel that confident of your adult child, of his maturity, his relationship with God, his decision-making abilities...

despite all the goofs I made in earlier years. God is so faithful!

 

So Su Wei and Helen: Are you teaching your kids that baseball bats are dangerous? Or rocks? Or just about anything they lay their hands on, that if used with the motive of hurting someone, is dangerous?

My examples of the "good" uses of a gun still stand. You did not refute them in any way, shape, or form, now did you?

My point was summarized in my last paragraph: "It's what people do with the things God gives them, or the things they've created with the intelligence God gives them, that determines their usefulness."

If you can refute that, then please do so. Otherwise, admit the truth that you just don't like guns, not that guns in themselves are "evil".

 

Don, yes, baseball bats and rocks ARE dangerous and to be handled carefully! Both have been causes for serious injury and needed stitches in students I have taught through the years! Anything which can be used as a weapon has a danger connected to it which must be brought to the consciousness of kids. Matches are dangerous, too. So are hockey sticks, knives, and a host of other things. That's why we are parents! How some of our kids even live to grow up amazes me! We have everything we can do to protect some of them from themselves.

The problem with guns is multiple beyond the others, however. With a rock you have to use muscle and actually wind up and throw the thing. A baseball bat is also somewhat unwieldy. However a gun is so easy for the amount of damage it can do. Just point it and pull that little trigger.

I think you will see that on any entertainment the kids might ever watch which has any gun involved in it, the gun is always used against a human being, not to hunt food or even to protect against an intruder. So whether or not the gun may be used for getting food, the message the kids get is that its primary purpose is to hurt other human beings. This is not the case with baseball bats, matches, rocks, hockey sticks, or anything else.

And I know from experience from having been married to someone who brought home venison before that by the time you figure in the hunting license, the gun and ammunition itself, the gas for the truck, the costs of butchering (if you don't do it yourself, and it is a mighty messy job!) and freezing the meat, it's sometimes more expensive than just going down to the store and picking up a roast for dinner!

So, living in a day and age when hunting is not cost-efficient, added to unknown disease or parasite problems in the animal killed, and the absolute MESS that all this can entail, claiming the gun is primary because of hunting is not an argument I swallow anymore. IN addition, who hunts with either hand-guns or semi-automatics??? These are completely for the use of one human against another.

Now, all that aside, I will argue for your right to own a gun. I am against gun control laws for the most part, with the exception of 'Saturday night specials' and the semi-automatics which cannot really be used for any other purpose than to injure or kill another human being.

No, guns themselves are not evil. I certainly never said that. But man in an unredeemed state always tends toward the evil (Gen. 8:21), and thus putting a weapon that takes so little to use and can do so much damage to others, whether accidently or on purpose, into the hands of such people is a scary thing.

I've had a gun pointed at me twice in my life. Once when I was a cashier at a restaurant during a hold-up (I was about 18 at the time), and once by someone as a joke (I was 22 then). Those are the ages of carelessness anyway, but how easy it would have been to just pull that little metal bit and kill me!

No thank you, guns are not something I want in my house or around children who are growing up. Their primary purpose no matter what is killing and danger.

Let me know the next time you have to ward off a charging bear!

 

Congratulations on your new baby! That's wonderful and God bless you all!

 

I wouldn't blame you one bit, Preach. And I would recommend one more thing. Since you live in Florida, where this is legal, I would recommend that you get a conceal/carry permit. What we really need is nationwide conceal/carry.

Bill C.

 

Dear Helen,

You wrote...

We lived in rural New England (mostly Maine) for 25 plus years raising our 11 children on an 80 acre farm.
I and other family members as well as other locals and their families supplemented our larder with the birds and beasts of the Maine forest.

In maine (at least when I was there) hand-guns and semi-automatics (fully automatics are illegal everywhere) were allowed for hunting.

And obtw, we DID have a bear one year in Freedom Maine that went about killing pigs (she killed several of my ducks) and terrorized the locals.
She was brought down by two brothers who jointly owned a hog farm which she had raided.

It made the front page of the local blurb.
"SHE-BEAR KILLED IN HAIL OF BULLETS"

To be honest...
Other things which made the front page:

"DAIRY COW STOLEN DURING THE NIGHT"
"OUT-OF-STATE HUNTER SHOOTS DAIRY GOAT"
"TIRE DUMP FIRE BURNS OUT-OF-CONTROL"

Just so you know...

HankD

 

Yes, I agree that children are taught several things that are wrong... however, it is also true that since man has a sin nature he will always do wrong (w/ out the Holy Spirit of God) even when in a perfect enviroment- Look at the Garden of Eden.

One doesn't have to teach a child to lie it comes natural to him. We are all as sheep who have gone astray, all our righteousness is as filthy rags, and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Fortunately Jesus Christ paid the ultimate penalty for our sins and we have the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Agreed also, Homo-Sexuality is a sin that even the world despises...

Congratulations on the son, may he bring honor and glory to God and make mom and dad proud.