"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5
I used to think the job of a journalist was to bring in the news based on facts and truth. In a country that hails itself for all the freedom we are supposed to have, it sure was a shock to read that Chicago FOX News anchor, Robin Robinson, was made to apologize to the audience less than a day after announcing through the evening news that there is no Santa Claus. Ms. Robinson said,
"Stop trying to convince your kids that Santa is Santa,” Robinson said to co-anchor Bob Sirott during a segment Tuesday night. “That’s why they have these high expectations. They know you can’t afford it, so what do they do? Just ask some man in a red suit. There is no Santa.”
No sooner the words left her mouth parents rushed in to do an 'intervention' of sorts to make sure their little children's minds would not be tainted forever by the truth! And of course, in the politically correct nation we live in, where we are supposed to be 'free to speak our minds', poor Ms. Robinson was forced to give a "heartfelt" apology to her viewers, for being so 'callous and careless."
Heck, why give your kids the truth when they can spend a good decade of their lives thinking and believing there's some guy on a red suit willing to squeeze through a ton of bricks with fire waiting at the end of it and a sack full of all their heart's desires? And we wonder why so many people need therapy!
In Santa's case, one really can't ask and expect to receive, and Ms.Robinson had that one right! Not everyone that asks Santa is going to get what they want, hence their expectations will not be met and their hopes and dreams will most likely be shattered. And whose fault is that? Ours! Don't worry. I include myself on this one because there was a time when I too made that same mistake. But, thanks be to God that I now know the truth and have no need to live a life based on deception, whether is Santa or religion.
We tell our kids there is a Santa Claus just as easily as we tell them there is a Tooth Fairy and an Easter Bunny. We fill their minds with ideas of things that are not true and have never existed, hoping to give them a reason to have 'hope and joy', something to look forward to. And the worst part of it is that all of it is based on the very things we should all avoid; the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world." 1 John 2:16
It's all about asking for something we've seen and now want. One of those we just had to have it things , so we can fit in and be like the rest. God only knows that children will probably be embarrassed and teased if they can't show off some kind of material thing, like the rest of their friends.
Of course it is about worldly lusts. Think about it; could a person ask Santa to heal their cancer, or help them find a job, or watch over their son fighting a war on the Middle East? Or could Santa give us peace and strength and comfort when tragedy strikes?
No, he can not. And children should not be subjected to the deception that, if you just believe hard enough, you might just get what you want. And all you need is faith on that one desire. Why work hard at believing on something when Jesus said 'if you had faith as big as a grain of mustard'....Do you have an idea how big a grain of mustard is? And why waste faith asking for the very things we are supposed to not treasure here on earth?
Even society and tradition can not preserve the idea of Santa Claus in light of it's supposed goodness, because for mainstream America it's all about business. It's all about enticing people to buy things they don't need with money they don't have, all while keeping children in the dark about the truth.
More than a century ago, a man named Francis P. Church, the editor of the New York Sun, answered a letter to an 8 year old girl who was troubled by some of her friend's claims that there was no Santa Claus. In his letter, the only truth he mentioned was "The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor man can see". Although his thought process on saying those words was not founded on the truth I'm talking about in here, they are in fact the only words that can really be taken for granted. And so, with one man's words, a little girl went on believing, and the rest of the country for that matter, that not only were her friends wrong because they were filled with the skepticism of the age they lived in, but without Santa there would be no poetry or romance to make tolerable our existence in this world and the eternal light of the world would be extinguished.
Wow....I need a moment to gasp. I feel like I am revisiting the front page of a newspaper when Pope John Paul II died. It read "The light of the world has ceased to exist"
Please, know one thing, I am not saying these things because I don't celebrate Christmas. As a matter of fact I do, and in as big a way as possible. HOWEVER, there is a huge difference between celebrating a season in honor of The True Light of this world and nurturing the idea of a character bound to break the hearts of innocent little lives as they come to realize that what they believed in was never real. That, in and of itself is worse for them, in so many levels, than simply telling them early on that it is just a fable. It crushes their trust in adults and makes it even harder for them to believe other things they should believe in as they grow up. How can we expect kids to believe in God if when they are little we tell them Santa is real and they find out he is not after all. For crying out loud, God is invisible! If we tell them that he whom they can see is not real, how are they to believe in one they can not see? If we crush the faith we told them to put in Santa, how are we to expect them to have faith in God? Francis P. Church told little Virgina to 'have faith' even without seeing. Isn't that the same thing Jesus tells us? Blessed are those who believe without seeing? We can not teach children to have faith both in God and Santa, now can we? Because we can not serve two masters.
Santa Claus is not real. God is. And is about time parents start telling children the truth, without fearing they'll break their little hearts. We won't break their hearts if we teach them from day one that God is and Santa isn't. Sure, celebrate Christmas. By all means, buy a big tree, light it up and fill it with presents underneath. They don't have to be expensive or even store bought. Children don't know the difference, only we do. And they are only going to react to the whole experience based on what they see us say and do. Don't let the commercialization of Christmas and the imagination of any come between your children and the most glorious experience they can always have. And yes, always, because Santa "may come" only once a year, but God lives forever.
Unfortunately, for many generations, men has had a need to have a tangible, visual artifact, something to hold on to and look at, something that can compliment his 'faith'. Even when God was giving Moses the original version of 'life's little instruction book', down at the bottom of the mountain men were building for themselves images. And so it has been since the beginning. God gives us freedom and yet we choose bondage. God gives us truth and yet we choose lies. God asks us to teach His ways to our children, and yet we choose men's ways instead. And so it goes, from one generation to the next, the lies, the bondage, the heartbreaks that men himself has chosen to pass on, one child at a time.
"That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not." John 1:9-10
This Christmas season, let the the True Light of Christ shine in your life, in your home and in your children, that they may come to know the true joy and the true light of this world. And be not afraid to ask of Him who is truly able to give in such a way that there would be no room enough to receive it! Malachi 3:9
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God..." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
I used to think the job of a journalist was to bring in the news based on facts and truth. In a country that hails itself for all the freedom we are supposed to have, it sure was a shock to read that Chicago FOX News anchor, Robin Robinson, was made to apologize to the audience less than a day after announcing through the evening news that there is no Santa Claus. Ms. Robinson said,
"Stop trying to convince your kids that Santa is Santa,” Robinson said to co-anchor Bob Sirott during a segment Tuesday night. “That’s why they have these high expectations. They know you can’t afford it, so what do they do? Just ask some man in a red suit. There is no Santa.”
No sooner the words left her mouth parents rushed in to do an 'intervention' of sorts to make sure their little children's minds would not be tainted forever by the truth! And of course, in the politically correct nation we live in, where we are supposed to be 'free to speak our minds', poor Ms. Robinson was forced to give a "heartfelt" apology to her viewers, for being so 'callous and careless."
Heck, why give your kids the truth when they can spend a good decade of their lives thinking and believing there's some guy on a red suit willing to squeeze through a ton of bricks with fire waiting at the end of it and a sack full of all their heart's desires? And we wonder why so many people need therapy!
In Santa's case, one really can't ask and expect to receive, and Ms.Robinson had that one right! Not everyone that asks Santa is going to get what they want, hence their expectations will not be met and their hopes and dreams will most likely be shattered. And whose fault is that? Ours! Don't worry. I include myself on this one because there was a time when I too made that same mistake. But, thanks be to God that I now know the truth and have no need to live a life based on deception, whether is Santa or religion.
We tell our kids there is a Santa Claus just as easily as we tell them there is a Tooth Fairy and an Easter Bunny. We fill their minds with ideas of things that are not true and have never existed, hoping to give them a reason to have 'hope and joy', something to look forward to. And the worst part of it is that all of it is based on the very things we should all avoid; the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world." 1 John 2:16
It's all about asking for something we've seen and now want. One of those we just had to have it things , so we can fit in and be like the rest. God only knows that children will probably be embarrassed and teased if they can't show off some kind of material thing, like the rest of their friends.
Of course it is about worldly lusts. Think about it; could a person ask Santa to heal their cancer, or help them find a job, or watch over their son fighting a war on the Middle East? Or could Santa give us peace and strength and comfort when tragedy strikes?
No, he can not. And children should not be subjected to the deception that, if you just believe hard enough, you might just get what you want. And all you need is faith on that one desire. Why work hard at believing on something when Jesus said 'if you had faith as big as a grain of mustard'....Do you have an idea how big a grain of mustard is? And why waste faith asking for the very things we are supposed to not treasure here on earth?
Even society and tradition can not preserve the idea of Santa Claus in light of it's supposed goodness, because for mainstream America it's all about business. It's all about enticing people to buy things they don't need with money they don't have, all while keeping children in the dark about the truth.
More than a century ago, a man named Francis P. Church, the editor of the New York Sun, answered a letter to an 8 year old girl who was troubled by some of her friend's claims that there was no Santa Claus. In his letter, the only truth he mentioned was "The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor man can see". Although his thought process on saying those words was not founded on the truth I'm talking about in here, they are in fact the only words that can really be taken for granted. And so, with one man's words, a little girl went on believing, and the rest of the country for that matter, that not only were her friends wrong because they were filled with the skepticism of the age they lived in, but without Santa there would be no poetry or romance to make tolerable our existence in this world and the eternal light of the world would be extinguished.
Wow....I need a moment to gasp. I feel like I am revisiting the front page of a newspaper when Pope John Paul II died. It read "The light of the world has ceased to exist"
Please, know one thing, I am not saying these things because I don't celebrate Christmas. As a matter of fact I do, and in as big a way as possible. HOWEVER, there is a huge difference between celebrating a season in honor of The True Light of this world and nurturing the idea of a character bound to break the hearts of innocent little lives as they come to realize that what they believed in was never real. That, in and of itself is worse for them, in so many levels, than simply telling them early on that it is just a fable. It crushes their trust in adults and makes it even harder for them to believe other things they should believe in as they grow up. How can we expect kids to believe in God if when they are little we tell them Santa is real and they find out he is not after all. For crying out loud, God is invisible! If we tell them that he whom they can see is not real, how are they to believe in one they can not see? If we crush the faith we told them to put in Santa, how are we to expect them to have faith in God? Francis P. Church told little Virgina to 'have faith' even without seeing. Isn't that the same thing Jesus tells us? Blessed are those who believe without seeing? We can not teach children to have faith both in God and Santa, now can we? Because we can not serve two masters.
Santa Claus is not real. God is. And is about time parents start telling children the truth, without fearing they'll break their little hearts. We won't break their hearts if we teach them from day one that God is and Santa isn't. Sure, celebrate Christmas. By all means, buy a big tree, light it up and fill it with presents underneath. They don't have to be expensive or even store bought. Children don't know the difference, only we do. And they are only going to react to the whole experience based on what they see us say and do. Don't let the commercialization of Christmas and the imagination of any come between your children and the most glorious experience they can always have. And yes, always, because Santa "may come" only once a year, but God lives forever.
Unfortunately, for many generations, men has had a need to have a tangible, visual artifact, something to hold on to and look at, something that can compliment his 'faith'. Even when God was giving Moses the original version of 'life's little instruction book', down at the bottom of the mountain men were building for themselves images. And so it has been since the beginning. God gives us freedom and yet we choose bondage. God gives us truth and yet we choose lies. God asks us to teach His ways to our children, and yet we choose men's ways instead. And so it goes, from one generation to the next, the lies, the bondage, the heartbreaks that men himself has chosen to pass on, one child at a time.
"That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not." John 1:9-10
This Christmas season, let the the True Light of Christ shine in your life, in your home and in your children, that they may come to know the true joy and the true light of this world. And be not afraid to ask of Him who is truly able to give in such a way that there would be no room enough to receive it! Malachi 3:9
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God..." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
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