Christmas Memories

My prayer is that I reflect this Christmas on what this holiday truly means. God sent his Son to this earth to live among us, to be born in the flesh, and to die. Die a mean and cruel death for my sins and yours. Praise be to our God that he loves us that much!!!! Merry Christmas to you all.

I do have to take a moment to address an issue that has "bothered" me this season. I am a HUGE believer in Santa Claus : ) and though I know what December 25th means to me, the day we celebrate Christ's birth. I truly pray that I celebrate Christ's birth daily and that I am raising 2 girls with Chris and that we teach them to celebrate Christ's birth daily. The "bothered" issue is that I do believe I had an awesome and amazing childhood at Christmas time because I believed in Santa. I guess I have felt bothered by the fact that some of my Christian friends might think that having your children believe in Santa is wrong. I have to disagree with that. I have VERY vivid memories as a child on Christmas morning about what Santa brought me and what an amazing time I had with family back then. Christmas Eve having Granny and Grandaddy Naron come over and celebrate Christmas with us with Walt, Amanda, Greer, and Howard. Those were the days for me!! (and mom's homemade rolls were great too!) We were very blessed to have a Santa that always came thru for us. Thanks mom and dad. I will never forget those Reebok BRIGHT blue high tops, or the hippo plastic sink!! For a moment this holiday season I wondered if there was something wrong in having my kids believe in Santa. I tell you tonight I am proud that they believe. Proud that my husband and I want them to believe in the "magic" of Santa. I nor my 3 siblings were ever conflicted as a child between Santa and Christ's birth. Never thought, "wow, my parents lied to me about Santa, so I guess Jesus doesn't exist either." Do I think that society today is completely misguided about Christmas and have TOTALLY turned it into a marketing holiday? YES!!

In NO way am I trying to step on anyone's toes, I just have been on FB these past few weeks and read different comments from people about how they can't believe people at church are coming up to their kids and asking them what Santa is going to bring them. I don't think it is so bad to believe. I am proud to be a part of Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville that has a Christmas store every year that we provide Christmas to some 140+ families. We provide for them so that they can have Christmas/Santa for their own kids and in so doing we are showing Christ's love. There, now I will get off of my soapbox!!

Merry Christmas!! May you have a blessed one and an awesome 2010!!