*WARNING: contains strong feelings regarding Elf on the Shelf: if you have a deep love of this tradition, do not read
As a cradle Episcopalian and now lay minister in the church my life is marked by the color of linens and liturgical rhythm that structures our year. As a person living in America and a mother of a toddler in the age of Pinterest my life is also inundated by the ways that others structure their own seasons; how they shop, how they celebrate, how they 'do life' and how it looks in comparison to my own.
It's an odd space to be in; a mom who ministers to teenagers and spends the entirety of my life thinking either of others' children or my own... the lenses I see the world through allow me to spend more time than the average mom thinking about faith formation. I live and breathe it. Each children's book becomes retreat material, each youth ministry book a parenting manual. The greatest blessing to my ministry has been motherhood. The greatest blessing to my motherhood has been, without a doubt, my ministry.
This past weekend as I worked online to organize our family's 2014 Advent plans I came across what has become Advent in America... Elf on the Shelf. If you know nothing about it, Google it, and become utterly exhausted for all parents. In a nutshell a little elf moves in to your home the month leading up to Christmas and reports back to Santa nightly regarding your child's good or bad behavior (whether they are on the nice or naughty list).
When the month leading up to Christmas becomes about the sum of our good or bad works Christmas becomes judgement day... recorded by a small elf who has invaded our homes we have, without a doubt, left Christ out of Christmas. Christ, in fact, came to save us from the elf on the shelf.
There is no more tally.
There is no works salvation.
There is nothing we can do that cuts us out of the eternal celebration if we chose to accept the invitation.
There is no naughty or nice list.
There is only the gift of GRACE.
Grace (noun) in Christian belief: the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings
What we do with our kids matters. What we teach them, both explicitly and implicitly, about God makes a difference. The month leading up to Christmas should be full of excitement, anticipation, and joy. There are amazing resources out there to help moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles make Advent a time of holy preparation that readies our children for the life altering gift that is Christ's birth.
- I have learned so much from my sweet friend Christine that I was blessed to meet on a retreat in North Carolina and now I just stalk via Facebook. She writes about how she celebrates Advent with her family on her blog These Stones. You will also get lost in her awesomeness, go ahead... I do it, too.
- If you are a lover of finding mass amount of information in one place as I am, go ahead and start a Family Advent Board on Pinterest. Don't start comparing yourself, aint no body got time for that.
- Looking for a great way to teach your children about St. Nicholas? (HURRY! St. Nicholas day is December 6th!) Watch the Veggie Tales movie on Netflix!
- Jesse Tree. Just get all up in your research mode and figure out how you can make that happen for your family. It's the thread, it's the ah-ha! It's beautiful to behold. My little ones are not quite there yet but I am anxious to make this new book by Ann Voskamp what our Advent is about... HURRY UP AND GROW UP ALREADY I WANT TO DO THIS
We can spend our time moving an elf around as she/he creates nightly havoc on our homes and instils faulty theological ideas of Christ's birth in our children or we can put that energy into forming our children's faith in ways that will sustain them past the magic years. I need my children to know about, feel, accept, and cling to God's GRACE. There are Christmas' ahead of them that will be sad, lonely, where they will mourn. There will be others where they will feel as they do now, where the magic of it all will be too much but no because of a list or an elf or a gift but because of LOVE.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." -Isaiah 9:6
