Where's Your "Elf on a Shelf"?

                I absolutely love Christmas time.  I love all of the traditions and anticipation in the air.  I love watching my girls get excited about everything from putting up our Christmas tree and decorating, to making Christmas treats, to being a part of our church’s Christmas program.  To me, Christmas is so much more fun as a mom because I love seeing my girls light up about everything.  I am not one of those Christians who thinks everything secular at Christmas time is bad.  Rather, I am trying to teach my kids why we give gifts, why there is a star at the top of the tree, and the real reason behind the season.  Our society has taken a Christian holy-day and turned it commercial, but there are so many wonderful things to teach our kids even in the commercial parts of Christmas.  I do find it intriguing how many non-Christians celebrate, and I welcome it.  Even if they don’t know the actual reason why we use a tree to decorate, or what the meaning behind candy canes and wreaths are (which ironically all have Christian roots) I pray that their hearts would be open during this time to feel God’s love for him and understand that they have been given the greatest gift, Jesus, whether they believe in Him or not at this point.

                One of the newest traditions of Christmas has become the elf on a shelf phenomenon, boy how I wish I had come up with that.  We have an elf that my 4-year-old creatively named Elfie when she was 2.  It is kind of a silly idea but it is so sweet how excited she gets when she finds that elf each day.  I started thinking about how blessed children are with their childlike faith.  I don’t know a little girl who doesn’t just live in an imaginary world.  My girls are always playing mommy or teacher or pretending to be a princess.  My favorite thing to watch is how pure their faith in God is.  When my oldest wakes up from a bad dream, the first thing she asks me to do is say a prayer for her.  When I put my 2-year-old to bed right now I can’t just pray for her, she wants me to pray for her stuffed cow, baby doll, pacifier, and any other random thing she has decided to sleep with that particular night.

                I think that’s why Jesus had a special place for children in his heart.  He healed many children and, unlike most men in that day, never sent children away when they came to him.  Instead he drew them to himself.  I love The Message translation of Matthew 18:2-7.  The “mature” men of God, the disciples, were inquiring of Jesus who ranked highest in the Kingdom of God.  In my opinion they were fishing to find out which of them was Jesus’ favorite. I love how he responded to them.  “For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, ‘I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me. But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.’”  

                I truly believe that as adults sometime we do ourselves a disservice.  Rather than simply knowing and trusting that God has our best interests at heart, we over analyze every single time we are in a trial and lose our faith.  We think there is some magic formula to pleasing God and getting our prayers answered.  However, he simply wants us to humble ourselves and have simple trust like a child.

                The older I get and the longer that I am a Christian, I am so amazed at how much I realize I don’t know.  Over the last several months I have come across so many things in scripture that I never even knew were there.  I have been a Christian as long as I can remember, and it humbles me every single time I find something new in a book I thought I knew everything about already.  I’ve decided that rather than going through life trying to understand every little thing, I want to be more like my little girls looking for that elf.  I want to wake up each day with anticipation, excited to see where God is going to show up today.  I want to go back to the simple and elemental things and have a simple trust like a child.