This Christmas has been way off for me this year. Between being pregnant and feeling overwhelmed with worlds events I just feel very, un-Christmas spirit like. Not the bahumbug I don't like Christmas, but just honestly not in the joy filled mood I normally am with the Christmas season. A lot of the stress I think has come from my own self doing though. I am a huge pusher of, "keeping Christ in Christmas." We all know that we want to keep Christ in Christmas that Christmas to Christians is about celebrating Jesus birth and it's all about him. But trying to convince a 4 year old and 1 year old of this concept is something extremely hard to do at least without completely ruining their excitement.
I have thought about this for weeks and have finally come to realize that there is nothing wrong with how my children view Christmas. Why do we push 'Christ in Christmas" so much anyways? Yes it's about his birth but shouldn't we also be celebrating about His life? I mean Christ came to save the world. He was a gift He was all about bringing love, joy and peace to the world and personal sacrifice.
What if we stopped trying so hard to bring in extra "Jesus mode" and start bringing him in for real, bringing real peace, happiness, joy and love to our children. Our every day lives should be just as full of these things all year round. If we are sincere about having Jesus in Christmas then we should be sincere in showing our children Jesus all year around so when Christmas comes they don't question if when we celebrate it has something to do with Jesus.
I don't feel that Jesus is looking down and proud of me when I try so hard to push 'Christ in Christmas,' the way I see many other Christians do. I believe He gave us these little children to see things differently. There really is nothing wrong with sharing Jesus at Christmas but there is also nothing wrong with your kids being excited because they know they are going to get gifts soon, lots of yummy food, and lots of family time. If we are showing Jesus at Christmas than all these things are things that Jesus would be happy to see. He gave us these precious gifts called children, to make them happy, to show them love and yes, once in a while I think Jesus is totally on board with us spoiling them to pieces. He spoiled and still spoils us as His children on a daily basis why wouldn't He want us to show the same kind of giving and caring to our own children? I think keeping peace, love, and lots of joy in this time of year is the best way to keep Christ in Christmas.
So this year, to get out of my little funk I was in regarding the season of Christmas I stopped trying so hard to make sure my 4 year old understood that it was ALL about Jesus, not the presents. I started trying to just remind him once in a while that we get gifts and celebrate this time of year for Jesus birthday, just like when we get ready to celebrate his birthday and with celebrating birthdays there is nothing wrong with the excitement over the expectation of the gifts and fun he'll have this time of year. I have given up the crazy notion that my 4 year old should only be excited because Jesus was born after all he is 4, and presents to him really are the fun of it all.
For now, as a parent I pray that eventually his little mind and heart will comprehend and enjoy the gift of Christmas given a long time ago. Until then the point Christ has is that we keep Christ in everything we do and say, not just in certain times of the year like Christmas.
THANK YOU! Drives me crazy how people who don't really care about Jesus the rest of the year suddenly get offended that Christ is being taken out of Christmas! 365 days out of the year should be about Him! And then let's not freak out about a couple of days that are actually set up around a pagan holiday for the winter solstice ...
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