What Huge Lie Does Culture Teach Our Kids at Christmas?
Hey Mamas & Papas,
“He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake.”
Our culture tells us that Jolly ole St. Nicholas is keeping a list, and he’s checking it twice. He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. So the gifts under our tree at Christmas are a direct result of how good or bad we’ve been throughout the year.
Is that how our faith works?
Did God give the great gift of Christ to the world because we were good? Because we deserved Him?
No. Hard no.
The Christian faith tells us that a very good God sent the gift of his Son to a broken humanity, to a hopeless people who have fallen short of His glory. We don’t deserve the gift of Jesus, but God gave this gift because of His overwhelming love for us.
Likewise, the gifts under our tree for our kids must not be attached to their behavior. Unlike Santa Clause, our gifts must not have strings attached. They should be a result our love, not a manipulative ploy to garner a good performance from our kids.
And here’s the thing… many people view God the same way. They think that God is sitting up on His heavenly throne peering down at us with disapproving eyes while making a list of all the bad things we’ve done.
Have you ever felt that way? Have your kids?
We really need to get this message right, Moms and Dads, for ourselves and for our kids.
Joining me as a co-host for a vital conversation about what our culture gets wrong about Christmas in Episode 82 of CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD is Bethany Kimsey, a mother of 8 and host of The Warrior Mama Podcast, a show that is devoted to applying the Gospel to the daily details of parenting our children. Together, Bethany and I tackle one of the most prevalent and pernicious cultural lies about Christmas—the lie that your Christmas gifts are attached to your goodness.
You can listen to this podcast on Life Audio by clicking on the image below:
Or you can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. And please consider giving CPCW a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. That would make my day!
Bethany’s bio: As a mother to 8 children, Bethany Kimsey has seen God radically change her messy motherhood from weary, anxious, and frantic to peaceful, joyful, and triumphant. She helps weary mothers win the battle against worry and fatigue as they understand their identity in Christ and rest in the hope of the Gospel in community with other moms. As a writer, speaker, and encourager of mothers, she wants to see a generation of moms who can connect their motherhood to the love of Jesus in real and practical ways so that they can be confident.
Bethany recently authored A Warrior Mama’s Prayer Journal to help mothers pray intentionally over their children and anchor in gospel truths. This can be purchased at www.Bethanykimsey.co.
She would love to connect at her website bethanykimsey.com or her Warrior Mama podcast https://whengodbreaksthrough.libsyn.com found on your favorite podcast platform. You can connect with Bethany on Instagram or Facebook as well.
EPISODE LINKS:
Bethany’s website: https://bethanykimsey.com/
Collaborated episode: The Hope of Christmas and Ways to Walk It Well w/ Catherine Segars
PODCASTS & RESOURCES REFERENCED:
Episode 4: Is Christianity Just a Religion of Do’s and Don’ts
Song facts about “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”
Matthew 22:37
