Body: | Santa-Claus is God in the eyes of young children!
Do you lie to your children?
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Remember the excitement of Christmas eve as children when we couldn't get
to sleep. We were awaiting the arrival of Santa-Claus. We were told that
"He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if
you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake". Now children know
Santa-Claus lives far away on the North pole and they have never met him.
Children can understand how parents know if they've been bad or good, but
for a perfect stranger that lives far away to know when they are sleeping
or awake is nothing short of supernatural. In fact Santa-Claus to a child
is an exact representation of God to an adult. Children are taught to
believe in this "all knowing", "always present", "all powerful" giver of
best gifts. In fact, a child's faith in Santa-Claus is in my opinion more
powerful than their faith in God himself.
I am reminded of a boy in my grade 2 class. It was just before Christmas
break and the whole class was excited. One boy discovered that Jamie, a
fellow classmate, still believed in Santa-Claus. The whole class ridiculed
Jamie so bad that he ran out of the class and cried all the way home. My
heart still goes out to Jamie. Yet in reality most children learn that
Santa-Claus doesn't really exist by mocking of older children or peers as
in Jamie's case. Older siblings love to laugh at younger siblings when
parents give approval to "pop" the Santa-Claus bubble of the young and
faithful.
Now this is where the danger lies. Every year, millions of children
suddenly have their faith "shattered" in this "all knowing",
"omni-present", "all-powerful" Santa-Claus. This must damage their ability
to have faith in the one true God who really does exist. No wonder adults
usually visualize God as a kind old man and Jesus as baby in a Christmas
nativity scene. This is how they were taught about God and Jesus as
children.
Since Christmas is not found in the Bible, I believe parents would be well
advised to participate in Santa-Claus as a game. Teach children that
Santa-Claus is a myth and a fairy-tale on their first Christmas. Play the
"Santa-Claus game" but protect your children's faith in God by seeking out
and destroying any "faith" they have in Santa-Claus. Otherwise, imagine
this: Your 13 year old hears the preacher talk about God the Father, as an
all knowing, all powerful giver of the gift of eternal salvation in his
Sunday sermon. The preacher then encourages all to have faith in God. But
"once bitten, twice shy". Your young teen thinks to himself, "Dejavu! I
know when I am an adult, that I will learn that Jesus was just a myth and
that church is just a game, just like Santa-Claus". Playing the
"Santa-Claus game" doesn't take any of the fun or joy out of Christmas for
children. In fact they may enjoy it more!
By Steve Rudd
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Even Santa Knows that: "A lie is a lie is a lie"!
My mother's parents taught her to believe in Santa Claus. My mom said it
hurt her deeply when she discovered that they had lied to her, so she
didn't want to lie to us. My dad was just very, very spiritual and refused
to lie to us. So I never believed in Santa Claus.
My husband was taught to believe in Santa Claus but did not want to lie to
our children. We took a lot of heat from his family because we refused to
lie to our children. My children are grateful to us that we did not lie to
them. A couple of them got in trouble at school and got taken out of class
and reprimanded because they told their fellow kindergartners that Santa
didn't exist.
Do we love our children or don't we? If we can look into their innocent
little faces and lie through our teeth to them, then we absolutely do not
love them. They trust us. They depend on us to tell them the truth. What
kind of horrible parents are we if we would say, "Oh, don't listen to
Johnny. You know I will tell you the truth. Of course Santa exists"? Well,
you know what? When they find out it isn't so, we shouldn't expect them to
listen when we tell them God exists. At least I wouldn't. If my parents had
lied to me about one thing I would have figured they'd lie about something
else. Or they were so stupid they didn't know reality from fiction.
Do we want our children to be ignorant? If they asked us why grass is green
would we fill their pure little minds with some kind of story about fairies
dropping green food coloring on the grass or would we tell them the truth?
Do we want our children to be IGNORANT? Mercy, the truth is all there is in
this world!
A lie is a lie is a lie, and no matter how we want to sugarcoat it it's
still going to be a lie. All liars will have their part in the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone. And surely lying to children has to be the
worst kind of lie of all. We can compare Santa to Bugs Bunny all we want
but our children KNOW Bugs is just a cartoon figure. They really and truly
believe that a big fat bearded man comes down a chimney to give them
presents. How anyone could deceive their own children that they gave birth
to and deliberately make them ignorant so that they are laughingstocks to
children with honest parents is beyond me.
Do all good gifts come from God or do they come from Santa Claus?
Sorry, this is one of my soapboxes. As far as I'm concerned this topic
ought not to need discussion. Anybody with half a brain in his head knows
that lying is a sin. And since Santa doesn't exist, to say he does is to
lie.
By Tina Collins
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