raising faith-filled kids::4

fighting the material tide at christmas

the challenge of seeking to raise children in our post-christian, post-modern, globalizing capitalistic flattening world is quite significant. how do we encourage our children to look for the deeper things, ask the foundational questions about life instead of merely settling for the latest product created by disney, nintendo, or gap? should we forsake celebrating christmas all together to avoid the evil of materialist contagion? should we just go with the flow? how do we raise faith-filled kids in the context of santa, target, and the omnipresent power of the disney channel?

i've been thinking all month about the story of christmas: how the birth of one baby, to a poor family, in a poor land oppressed by an all-powerful distant imperialistic power managed to change the world. whether or not you believe that this jesus from nazareth was indeed the messiah of god, god with us, or the one to save us from our sins, the christmas story has great power. what better story to instill meaning in our kids and help them make sense of the world in which we live and the ways in which we have the power to choose how we'll live.

i drove home from worship at our church on monday night alone in the car, blasting a favorite carol giving thanks to god for the power of hope, peace and love made known to me in the stories of that baby - his birth and even more of his life. the moon was explosively rising above the oakland hills and i was filled with gratitude, for life, for the faith community in which my children and family live, for the children and families that stayed after the service to help clean-up so that i could get home quicker to my own family. maybe that is indeed the main thing to beginning teaching our children.

leila and her familiy came to our christams eve worship gathering and she wrote a great blog about it. it's like we we're sharing a latte together chatting after the service. you can read it on her blog (here).