Christmas...elves....Jesus...& Grace?

How in the world do all of those go together...that is the question that bogged my mind for the last few years. The girls have wanted an elf. EVERYONE has an elf on the shelf after all. I was a scrooge about this one. Honestly, I was totally against the whole idea for several reasons....I viewed it as a distraction from the true meaning of Christmas. I felt as if the whole concept (ie book) did not reflect the type of grace-based parenting we strive for (If you are not good....then you will not get...) Not to mention...that elf is CREEPY!! So...with the help of other Christian moms (gosh I love the internet),our family compromised. I bought the elf and book and did away the book. Instead, our "naughty" elf came neatly packaged in a box with a letter, explaining that her name was Gracie and she was sent by Santa for the girls to teach Gracie how to be good and to show her grace by cleaning up her messes, JUST like Jesus does for us EVERY day. And Gracie DID make messes....EVERY morning there was so much excitement and anticipation looking for Gracie. And we had a whole lot of laughs! I'm not sure who had more fun with our elf...Jared & I or the girls?!

Here is a snippet of part of our letter from Santa.... "I had to let you know something important. You know that whole naughty and nice list that everyone is talking about? Well....it’s not even true. I don’t even have a naughty and nice list. Because I know Jesus, I know a lot about grace which means that we get something we don’t deserve. Like when you make the wrong choice and do something bad, Jesus gives you grace and loves you no matter what. And I know your mom and dad give you grace…like when you deserve to get in trouble but they give you another chance...that is grace. I know that kids are not perfect. And I know that you girls are not perfect. But I do know that Jesus loves you all the time and so do I. So you don’t even need to worry about being on my naughty or nice list. I love to bring surprises on Christmas Eve so that is what you will get. To help you remember about grace and getting love even when you don’t deserve it, I wanted to send you a special treat....my friend Gracie!"

Although the girls were tired of cleaning up her messes, they were sad to see Gracie go. At one point Emma said, "Wow this is a lot of work"...I think she got a glimpse of how God views us...the unconditional love you get when you screw up over. and over. and over. So there we went trying to put a Christian perspective on a "wordly idea"....because isn't that what we try to do all the time anyway? Whew...this parenting thing is a lot of work.