.to my
"Santa Claus" Story
Children are so innocent....we often have no idea what is going through their curious, ever-learning minds.
This might well be the most difficult memory I carry; but sharing it is vital as an example of the importance of always trying to understand our children and to do all we can to be certain that they are understanding us.
Even more than the time my son came to me looking somewhat concerned, wondering if I might "lose" him... because he had heard me speaking to a friend about the child I "lost" (i.e. miscarriage)... something we often laughed about after I was able to explain to him in a way he could understand that such a thing could never happen with him; but this is something that will never be a funny memory.... though no longer as traumatic as it was at the time.
When I relate this 'story', I refer to it as my ..........................."Santa Claus story"!
...............We had been involved with Jehovah's Witnesses for several years by the time our son was born and proceeded to raise him as strongly as we could in those same beliefs. At a very young age he was sitting through those two-hour meetings at the Kingdom Hall and could tell you about nearly every story in his bible story book.
................By the time he was 4 yrs old he was voluntarily refusing birthday treats from his classmates and never showed a bit of disappointment at not being included in holiday celebrations. We were so proud!!!
................Finally, just months before he was to turn 7 years old, I chose to leave the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses (click here for that testimony). That was the first year we began taking evening rides to view some of the Christmas lights which we had spent years trying to ignore.
.............Our son began referring to the especially decorative houses as "Santa's workshops". Well, we figured that if he'd gone this many years without that idea, we were not going to begin promoting it then. So we would tell him that it was not true and that Santa was not real. He was adamant that Santa was real because the neighbor girl had told him so. After several of these discussions with him, I finally thought I could put an end to it once and for all and I posed this question to my not quite seven-year-old son. "If Santa is real, why has he not brought you anything up 'till now?"
..... .......When he answered, I was very glad it was dark enough in the car to hide the tears rolling down my face, as he swallowed hard and responded with, "Because I was never good enough!"

..............What can I add to that? We dropped our determination to be right and neither encouraged nor discouraged his desire to believe in Santa Claus.

................And so I implore all parents, no matter the teachings you follow or beliefs you have; talk to your children in detail about how they view things and how it makes them feel. It is never too early to start with them.
Things are not always as they may appear on the surface!
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