I will shamelessly admit I have played the
“you-better-be-good-or-Im-taking-your-presents-away card for much of
December. And when I have had to make
that warning far too many times in one day, I actually removed a present from
under the tree.
(And since our family participates in the 3 gift rule at
Christmas, each present carried some serious importance to each kid.}
Each present removal was followed with crying, screaming and
sometimes some huffing and puffing with foot stomps down the hall.
I gave the children the opportunity to “earn back” ONE
present each day, by doing chores and maintaining good behavior. (Seriously, why is this so much to ask?)
I think that is fair.
Lets give the kids a chance to redeem themselves, right?
But lo and behold, one of my older children, had one present under the tree and the
other had a whopping goose egg. Poor P,
he couldn’t earn back a present before losing it in an hours time. {We’ve seen a lot of tears, crossed arms and
trips to timeout, guys.}
We were told by our five and six year olds that it was going
to be the worst Christmas ever.
And for a moment (or a hundred moments), I felt like a
failing mother. I was embarrassingly stooping
to bribing my kids for good behavior, which doesn’t win me any Mother of the
Year Nominations. My kids couldn’t get
along with one another from the second Winter Break began, and my winter
cold bronchitis was taking everything I had out of me.
But I was also a mom
with a plan.
Those disobedient, crying, screaming, LOVED children went to
bed Christmas Eve, expecting the worst Christmas Ever…Like, Ever! But when they woke, they came to the tree
with all the presents that they had originally had. All their presents were back and waiting for
them to enjoy.
Wait, WHAT? They
didn’t EARN them back. Oh, no, they
probably actually were in the negative on that agenda.
They were given rules, told to follow them…or lose these
gifts. AND they were even given a chance
to redeem themselves! Really??
{And before you start thinking I just caved and gave the
presents to them because of my own guilt, or satisfaction, keep reading.}
This is what we taught them Christmas morning this year:
They can't redeem themselves, and they showed us that. The only one who can redeem them is JESUS.
They never earned back their gifts. Nope.
Given many chances, but still…nope!
Kinda like ALL of us.
Right? Arent we all given many (many)
chances, and still fall and mess up? We certainly
didn’t earn the greatest gift we ever received.
Jesus gave to us, his WHOLE self, when we weren’t at all
worthy, and had not earned any of His grace.
He gave freely.
They eagerly opened the presents that they didn’t earn,
because that’s like what we were given with the gift of Jesus. We will never deserve Him, but yet we were
given Him without a way for us to ever repay Him.
Not sure this lesson sunk in entirely, with our 5 and 6 year
old {and I consider our 6 month old and 20 month old exempt from the lesson}
but we will repeat the lesson a few years down the road to reinforce the concept. {You know, when I feel the need to resort to
bribing my children for good behavior once again.} And maybe slowly, it will start to sink
in.
The greatest Christmas gift was never earned, could never be earned, and actually was given
because of that simple fact. We are sinful
by nature, and we could never have “earned” God’s adoption of us. Like my kids on the Christmas Eve this year,
without Jesus, we really would have nothing to look forward to…
Alleluia. Happy New
Year, all!
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| The "Happy" Agui kids on the Eve of the "Worst Christmas Ever." |
