One of the elders at our church, Michael Osborne, wrote this admonition to help our congregation think Biblically about gift giving:
Christmas is coming. Beware! Satan can use even Christmas to get you to sin. That stinks, but it’s true. Satan can disguise himself as an “angel of light” and quote Scripture with the best of them (2 Cor. 11:14; Matt. 4:6). And Satan can take your love for your child and bend it toward the wrong standard of what’s good. You see, Satan succeeds not only when he gets you to do bad, but also when he gets you to measure yourself by the wrong standard of good.
You start by thinking, “I want to do what’s best for my child,” and you drift into “I want my child to have the best [you name it].” Other parents are getting something for their kids, and next thing you know, you’re thinking, “Maybe I’m not a good parent if I’m not providing that for my child.” You hear about kids opening present after present on Christmas day, and you wonder, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t get my kids that? Is it so wrong to want my kids to have a great Christmas experience?”
This is commonly called, “Keeping up with the Joneses.” The Bible calls it covetousness (Exod. 20:17). If you’ve gone into debt to get your children stuff for Christmas, you’re probably guilty. It looks like a desire to do good for your kids; but in fact it’s measuring your worth as a parent against a worldly (and high-stress!) standard. It takes what is a godly and good gesture—gift giving—and bends it into your sense of status and worth. It also assumes that it is “good” for your kid to open gift after gift, which is questionable at best.
There’s good news though: when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, He will not hold you accountable for failing to buy your kid the latest fad toy. (I am old enough to remember Cabbage Patch dolls and Tickle Me Elmo.) Instead, Christ will ask you, Did you “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4)? This is a lot easier on your budget, but a lot more challenging to your soul. Your children need Jesus, and He’s looking at you as the point person to bring them to Him: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deut. 6:6–7).
If you get your child the latest fad toy, it will go the way of Teddy Ruxpin and the Beanie Babies. (Do you even remember those? Yes? No?) What your children need is a godly parent, who will take time to interact with them, to teach them the gospel, that the Son of God was born into this world, lived a perfect life, died in the place of sinners, rose victorious over the grave, and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Heb. 7:25). That can bless them for eternity.
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