I'm thinking about barbies, Santa Clause, fairies, magic, and Disney.
Random and weird right? Well not really. These things have the potential to be influences in my children's lives, and I just can't decide(along with Erik, of course) where I stand on them. There are so many voices, so many opinions, that it's hard for me to discern whether or not it would be wise for our family to let our children play/watch/make believe with these things. That's not to say I think every Christian should have the same convictions. I just want to know what my convictions should be.
I'm torn between not wanting to be legalistic, but at the same time I want to make right decisions about how we are raising our children.
See, I am very convicted that I am to be intentional with my children in everything. And my standard is the Bible. I try to filter every influence that comes to my home through the Word of God. I want my children to have a Biblical world view.
I'll give you one example, this past Christmas the kids were given a Mickey Mouse Christmas dvd. My kids love Mickey Mouse, and were super excited to get to watch it. About half way through the movie, however, there's a scene where the ducklings are on their knees, hands folded, talking to the stars about what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. Immediately I was convicted to turn it off. Initially I fought the urge. I tried to tell myself to stop being silly, it's just a harmless movie, and the kids would understand it was pretend.
Except, here's the thing, my kids wouldn't have understood(at least not last Christmas.) Some three year olds would be able to understand, but at that time I was fairly convinced Jack and Anna did not understand the difference between reality and make believe. And I did not want them thinking they could "pray" to stars about Santa, when we teach them that when we fold our hands and go to our knees that's how we pray to God. So I turned the video off, and we didn't allow them to watch it anymore. That's not to say we won't ever let them watch it, but for now we have to be really careful about what we allow them to watch.
I think the best piece of advice I've been given about raising preschoolers is to just stick with the things that promote, "godliness, goodness, and love." And to remember that no one knows our children as well as Erik and I do. Surely if I can keep that in mind, my decisions regarding these things will fall into place.
This post is linked to Raising Homemakers and Women Living Well.
I love hearing from people who actually raise hard questions because they want to think biblically about everything! Keep it up! So many people probably tell you "it's not big deal" I would imagine. I know I don't plan to do the Santa Claus thing if I have children someday because I don't want to be telling them about Jesus...and then tell them Santa Claus is real, too? Just doesn't sound helpful or worth it when there are so many other ways to make childhood fun. I want my children to learn truthfulness from me, because I'm guessing I'll be among the top people they imitate. :)
ReplyDeleteI use to struggle with Halloween. Some years I let the children trick-or-treat and others, I didn't. The pastor in my church told us we should participate it and use it as a time to be lights in our neighborhoods...go to the parties and love others. I never allowed my children to believe in Santa because I wanted them to know we celebrated Christmas to celebrate Christ. My girls did play with Barbies and they loved it. I did try and base every rule I gave them upon Scripture and just have fun loving Jesus and others. All 4 of my children are grown and have always walked with Jesus. I taught them that loving Jesus was wonderful and the best way to believe...and they believed me!!! Just focus on being joyful, happy, and thankful and it will rub off on them!
ReplyDeleteExcellent thoughts! Keep on thinking, you are doing a good thing.
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