Holidays are so fun, so innocent, so exciting... yet so twisted.
This last St. Patrick's day my kids woke up in the morning excited to check on their leprechaun traps to see if any leprechaun's got caught in their carefully placed bait.
Why did they even want to catch a leprechaun in the first place? I didn't know. They didn't know. It's just what you do on St. Patrick's day! That and wear green. Because ... you know ... wearing green keeps you from getting pinched. (I'm sure there's some mildly interesting reason as to why that is - yet most of us don't why we do that either.)
Is it fun? Yeah.
Does is create lasting memories? Definitely.
Does it put a smile on our faces? Sure.
Make us laugh? Of course.
But I was blown away when I read my friends simple Facebook message explaining who St. Patrick really was. (Thank you Michele for sharing.)
{{{St Patrick was a God-loving Christian who at the age of 16 was captured by pirates and sold into slavery and endured his 6 year imprisonment by praying and meditating - considering this trial a test of his faith.
He received a vision of escaping and managed to do just that only to travel 28 days by land and then traveling by sea to return to France to devote the next 15 years of his life studying religion and the next 18 years of his life after that teaching and strengthening the few Christians of Ireland.
His mission was attended by much adventure, opposition and diligence including some Elijah-like "face-offs" with powerful Druid Masters and 12 imprisonments. He was a gifted teacher, exceptional missionary and wonderful example of making the best in terrible situations and seeking and responding to inspiration in order to carry out his personal life mission.}}}
...help keep us pointed towards God.
...teach us to stand up for what's right and true.
....teach us that if Mr. St. Patrick can do it, so can we.
Poor St. Patrick what an inspiring story and neat holiday to lose.
What if on Martin Luther king day instead of learning about Martin Luther King we celebrated it by hanging sticks on our bedroom door to welcome in the "Stick Man" who comes into children's rooms placing sticks (and candy) under their pillows to gift them with good dreams?
Martin Luther King? Whose he? Who needs him?
The fun doesn't stop there! Before going to bed, children place the hats upside down at the end of their bed and during the night the "Hatster" (a giant one armed, five-legged, floral scented, living hat) fills the hats with licorice and a kind letter from himself because, you know, Hatster sees everything and has seen the good things kids do.
George Washington? Never heard of him.
Veterans? Why bother?
On Martin Luther King Day we read stories or watch movies about Martin Luther King and learn about the civil right's movement.
On President's Day we honor the president's by learning about the president's or putting on a play.
On Veteran's Day we spend time acknowledging the men and women who have served in the armed forces.
I'm forgetting that it's only the holidays where we focus on Jesus Christ, God or God-devoted Christians that we have created some super innocent (but rather bizarre) make believe characters that sport stellar magical powers and god-like abilities bringing worldly possessions and goodies to children around the globe at super-hero speeds.
Let's take a step back and look at this. Here's a graph I've created that shows a list of all major holidays, what they were created for, what we actually celebrate and if we're on the mark or not.
It's interesting to see how in the last category (the Christian category) we're off the mark for every holiday...
Hmmm.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-holidays.
I enjoy the sweetness, innocence and fond memories of the Easter bunny, Santa and leprechaun's. My children search for Easter baskets. My home is decorated with some Santa decorations during Christmas time. And my children pass out Valentine's cards to their friends.
However, I can't help but feel that in order to help good Christian values and God-loving devotion continue to be strengthened (especially in today's world) we should not only kinda-sorta make a feeble attempt at incorporating the true Christian meanings into these holidays but we should completely take them back by making the Christian teachings and stories be the main focus.
(Instead of blindly participating in the non-Christian traditions like we did for St. Patrick's day.)
The traditions of the world have us driving on auto-pilot and celebrating Christian holiday's in a way where:
...there isn't much room left for Christ or God. In fact it even kind of feels awkward trying to incorporate them into the picture.
...Christ and God are rather boring compared to the entertaining, candy and gift giving characters.
...the unspoken truth regarding holiday's is: "No religion allowed."
Yup, no religion allowed. But look! Here's a cute fluffy bunny!!
Can these holiday's really be considered "innocent" if they're distracting us from the true purpose of the holiday or the "true reason for the season"?
Ohhhh...but look at how cute he is! So innocent! So...."Christlike"!
Don't these characters help us believe in Christ?
After all...
Cupid/Valentine's Day -
- We share our love and kind thoughts through valentine's cards containing action figures and the latest movie characters - like Jesus would have us do. (I think.)
- Cupid shares love with his arrows - like Jesus would have us do.
We feel the spirit when we make our valentine's day boxes.
- We celebrate the innocence of all good things.
- We decorate with colors that are found in heaven and that help us feel the spirit.
- We come together as families to make memories.
We are better able to ponder upon spiritual matters while petting spotted fluffy bunnies.
- We say what we're thankful for and work on having an attitude of gratitude.
- We spend time with family.
- We (sometimes) read the story of the pilgrims or call it good after we summarize the little we know about the sacrifices they made to our children.
- We focus on the colors of the candy cane and how they represent Christ.
- Santa gives like Jesus does without expecting anything but love in return.
- Santa loves like Jesus does.
- Santa is like a God - he can't die.
- Santa helps our children "practice" child-like faith. (You know, because kids need to practice having faith on fictitious objects to help them have child-like faith in Christ.)
- You can never see Santa but you can feel him.
- Santa has special powers, just like Jesus.
The reindeer fly like angels.
But, I'll admit, I'm not buying it and do we really think our kids are buying it?
Is the Holy Ghost right there saying, "Yes! Yes! Santa's suit. It's true! It's red! Just like Jesus' blood." while sending the warmest feeling from our heads to our toes?
"But we're having fun! We're creating family memories!"
Yes, that's true. And you're right, that is good. But is it good enough in today's world?
Truly, honestly - is it enough?
We only have a small handful of holidays where we spend our time, energy and money on creating a super special event. How are we going to choose to spend these holidays? What if, instead, we turned these holidays into super special testimony building events?
Only we can revive the true meaning of these Christian holiday's and enjoy the sweet and innocent memories that can be created during these yearly special events while strengthening our Christian beliefs and while being reminded of eternal truths by focusing on God and Christ.
Yes, we can take these delightfully familiar (and oh-so-innocent) holiday character's and create some fun memories about them and do our best at incorporating Christ's character traits or teachings into who they are.
Just look at that Santa! He cares so much about our children!
But there's someone who cares about our children far more than a make believe character. And one day when we're all back home in heaven the Easter bunny, Santa and leprechaun's will have never mattered and will have proven to be more of a distraction than a help meet.
Who knows, maybe if we choose to make Jesus Christ and God the main focus of our Christian holidays within our own family it'll become a tradition that is passed down from one generation to the next - a tradition far greater in value than focusing on Easter baskets, pots of gold and Jolly Old St. Nick.
Instead they'll focus on things that will matter forever...
(Blog post coming where I share some wonderful ideas about how to take back the Christian holiday's and create some amazing and testimony-strengthening family traditions.)
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