Santa and God's Grace

Santa is not a part of the Christmas celebration in our house. There are several reasons for this but one of the reasons is grace.

One day last week we had a CD of kids Christmas music playing and a song about Santa was being sung. The song went to talk about the usual better be good, Santa is keeping a list of right and wrong, and how good children will be given lots of presents for Christmas. On the surface as a parent part of me wants to look at my boys and say, "If you are good little boy this month you will have lots of presents for Christmas."

But I can't tell my kids that because I believe Christmas is about grace.

What if God had given the same stipulations that Santa requires? What if God had chosen to only send the gift of his son to the good people? What if God chose to keep a record of our rights and wrongs and used that list to decide if we should be given the gift of His son? But thankfully God is not like Santa. God chose to send the perfect Christmas gift to a very "naughty" world.

Just like everyone our boys sin many times every day and they are learning that when they choose to sin there will be a punishment. At our house withholding or threatening to withhold Christmas presents is not a punishment that we use when our boys are naughty. We tell our children that every present from us is freely given to them because we love them not because they have done something to earn our favor. Our Christmas gifts are an object lesson to our children of the gift of Jesus that God sent to us.

Santa doesn't visit our house because at our house Christmas is about grace.

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth...For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." John 1:14-17 (NASB)

My Very First Blog Post

Starting a blog is something that I have wanted to do for a couple of years. One of my New Year's resolutions was to start a blog and I got it set up but then didn't get around to writing. I kept thinking of posts I wanted to write but I knew I had to get past that first "introductory post." I decided that today would be a great day to start my blogging adventure.

I love Psalm 127:3 "Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward." Three years ago today I gave birth to my first child. Words cannot express my thoughts and feelings as I held my first precious little gift from God three years ago today. I knew as I looked into his eyes that my life would never be the same. Over the past three years God has blessed our family with three children. Yes I had 3 kids under 3 for a month and yes that does make me a little crazy. My kids make me laugh every day, cry frequently, and cause me to rely on God in ways that I never anticipated. The posts here will be sporadic at best. I am sure you will find grammar errors which will at least usually not be caused by my lack of education but because I am trying to squeeze in a post before the baby needs fed, or before naptime is over, or while I am half asleep before I crash in bed. Trust me my typos and grammar errors will bug me as much or more than they bug you. :) But I'll have to get over the fact that these posts will not be perfect and if they bother you that much well it's not like anyone is forcing you to read this. I want this to be a place where I can share some of the things they do to make me laugh, some of the things I cry over and most importantly the valuable lessons that God teaches me every day as I raise these precious little gifts He has entrusted to our family.

So yeah, I guess there it is my very first blog post! I hope you enjoy the opportunity to peek in at our life and learn a little more about us.