My kids just ain’t gettin’ this naughty and nice thing. I can sing the song all I want, which is punishment in and of itself, but they really could give a reindeer’s arse if the red-suited stranger puts them on the famed naughty list. So what’s a mom to do? Do I shout, “you snooze, you lose” and not give them the loot they scored last year? Do I buy them gifts, thereby not reinforcing the “if you make bad choices you get jack” rule? I’m losing this battle.
Since Christmas is really about Jesus and not about a jolly, old elf named Santa Clause, I started asking myself WWJD (what would Jesus do)? But the problem is I’m not a religious person. I’m what they call a doubter, so I’m not really sure what Jesus would do. Maybe baby Jesus was a whiner too, maybe he wouldn’t stop touching his brothers, maybe he pulled funny faces at the dinner table (or floor). Did Mary have to count to ten? Is that where the saying, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” came from—Mary shouting at her kids? It couldn’t have been all peachy.
So if I, the doubter, were able to ask Jesus, he probably would remind me that as naughty as my children are, at times, they are the ultimate blessing. He would remind me that Christmas may be a time we offer gifts to those we love, but it isn’t about “he who has the most toys wins” or even the naughty and nice rule. He would remind me, ever so humbly, of his birth. He would remind that the true meaning of Christmas is love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
As many questions as I have about religion, who could doubt the beauty in that. So, if my kids do—or don’t—rake it in this Christmas, the one thing they will always have is love, whininess and all.
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