Many children from Christian families do go a bit wayward at some point and have to
find Jesus for themselves.
Its one thing to believe because your parents tell you to, but quite a different matter
to discover Jesus for yourself. I know a lot of second/third generation Christians who
this happened to. None of them would say Santa was to blame. It's just that you have to
develope your own relationship with God, rather than piggy back off your parent's ideas and
beliefs. Learning what is real and what isn't and using the brain God gives us, learning
about the world for ourselves, is all part and parcel of growing up.
The difference is that everyone knows Santa is a nice make believe fairy story. You see mum or
dad buy something then hey presto, suddenly it's wrapped up with a tag on it from Santa. Kids
really aren't that daft ya know.
But when the Holy Spirit touches a person you know Jesus is real, it is an entirely different matter.
As I say I do not know of anyone who has been harmed by a bit of Santa when young and
Santa is not to blame for a person's unbelief. 99.9% of the population recognise it for
what it is, a bit a harmless fun. Most people don't even have chimneys anymore!
The only people/children who may have difficulties in what is real or what isn't I would think, are
people who are mentally handicapped in some way. But yet I know some people like this who
are Christians. Santa never caused a problem for them.
Very few people strive to convince older children and adults that Santa is real, to the
extent that they manage to actually convince people he is real and they never stop believing
in the existence of Santa. But if people still believe in Santa as older teens or adults and don't get that
it was a bit of harmless innocent fun for young children. Then they have far bigger problems and
believing in Santa as an adult is probably the thin edge of the wedge of those problems.
The point is, it's all about proportion. We can all have a bit of harmless fun, everyone knows it's
harmless fun, even the children! Its the adults who take everything out of all proportion and
start taking extreme measures like shouting and upsetting a line of kids and their families, they
are the ones who need to exam their motives and see a shrink. I dunno, maybe they are a bit OCD
or something about Santa!
In the school playground there was always one kid who spoilt the fun and games for everyone else.
Unfortunately there are adults around who still do the same. It's a pity the preacher didn't use that
opportunity to speak the gospel in love to those line of people or invite them to a carol service.
Instead he just made them all antagonistic and they probably now think all Christians are jerks.
Way to go, who needs the bad influence of Santa to put people off Jesus, when Christians are
making such a good job of that themselves.
Did I manage to put that across well, I do hope so as I'm expecting presents for being good. Lol
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