What Do Children Understand About Christmas?

With Christmas almost upon us, I wonder what most Christian parents are communicating to their children about Christmas and its importance for them and the body of Christ?

Most kids are so excited about Christmas day because they get to open all kinds of presents. For most kids, I believe the presents are their focus because that is what they have experienced from past Christmas’s. Everything is brought to the glorious moment when our parents said we can start opening packages.  The feeding frenzy begins as the children open one package and immediately go to the next one without even considering what they just opened.

I can remember how fulfilling it was to see the delight and pure joy on my kids faces on Christmas morning as they opened their gifts. As parents, that one event of seeing such delight can fuel our heart for the rest of the year as we work hard and sacrifice for our families the following year.  One year I had a new video camera and recorded my kids on Christmas morning when my son was five and my daughter was seven years old. My son is seen on video jumping up and down on the coach screaming, “This is the best Christmas ever” with his childhood lisp. When my wife and I look at that video now, it puts a smile on our faces and warms our heart.

The point I’m making is that times like these are priceless to us as parents and grandparents, and yet I believe Christmas should be more about our joy and delight in reflecting on the awesome gift of Jesus born as a baby. I think we can delight in both gift giving and the birth of Christ but my fear is we as parents and grandparents get so caught up in the gift giving that Jesus takes a back row seat in the day of celebration.

Moses instructed the children of Israel to be CAREFUL about how they raised their children. Look at his instructions in the book of Deuteronomy 4:9.

Deuteronomy 4:9                                                                                                                                                                                      Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Moses is saying that if we don’t refresh our hearts with the experiences of God doing extraordinary things in our lives we won’t be concerned with imparting that perspective and vision to our kids. The potential of God never moving in their lives in the future is a real one and sadly many parents are dumfounded when their kids grow up rejecting their faith. Moses goes on in Deuteronomy 11 to talk about God’s words and needing them to be rooted in the hearts and minds of parents.  Why? Because otherwise our faith shifts from living to a distant memory without us realizing it. Instead of our reality, Jesus becomes just some nice stories rather than a living faith that we walk in.

Deuteronomy 11:18-19                                                                                                                                                                               Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Moses say that if the word of God is in our hearts and minds it will be natural to share these values with our children. We will share our values and love for God in everyday life, not just in church on Sunday. Remember this important truth:  Our children learn both from example and from instruction. Both are necessary for our children to learn not only to respect our values but incorporate theses values into their own soul. Secondly, our values are CAUGHT more than they are TAUGHT. In other words, our kids won’t believe what we say if we don’t practice what we preach. Ouch!

There is an interesting story by a man named Art Linkletter, a famous TV entertainer when I grew up.

Art Linkletter saw a small boy scrawling wildly on a sheet of paper. 

“What are you drawing?” Linkletter asked. “I’m drawing a picture of God.”

“You can’t do that, because nobody knows what God looks like.”“They will when I’m finished,” the boy confidently replied.

As senseless as this story is, many of us have based our life beliefs on foundations no more solid than the young boy’s drawing. It is no surprise that life’s difficulties expose the lack of meaning in our lives and the inadequacy of our sources for answers to the questions of our hearts.

God cares more about our children’s moral and spiritual foundation than we do. He knows that unless our foundation is both strong and alive there is little chance our children will embrace them when they are older.  Many kids, after growing up, no longer believe in God, nor in the need for a personal savior in Jesus Christ. All too often it’s because parents tend to be PART TIME BELIEVERS instead of full time followers of Christ.  This is what Jesus said in Mark 9 about little children who are developing their world view and their potential God view by our behavior or lack thereof.

Mark 9:41-42                                                                                                                                                                                                      I tell you the truth, whoever gives you a drink of water because you belong to the Christ will truly get his reward. “If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, it would be better for that person to have a large stone tied around his neck and be drowned in the sea. 

Keeping our walk in the Lord solid is just like our marriages or friendships. We either nurture them and feed them or they wither and die. Our kids are watching our values far more than they are listening to our speeches about what they are. When we love God supremely it speaks loud and clear and then, when we explain it to our children, it will make perfect sense because our faith is not just words but the heartbeat of our lives.

If there was ever a need to make a New Year’s resolution it would be to freshen up our walk and heart for living for Jesus.  The kids and family members desperately need to see the reality of our faith and not just some old time religion.

Merry Christmas to you all,

Pastor Dale