Those were my thoughts as I drove my child to preschool this morning. I try to encourage talking / praying to God as much as possible in the home, which usually occurs at bedtime, before meals & if there is crying involved because of hurt feelings or hurt knees.

So on our way to school, I ask Bubbs if he’d like to pray or for me to pray. It’s always “Mommy! I want Mommy to pray!” So then I start by thanking Jesus for the night’s rest (good or bad), the weather that morning, the opportunity to go to school. Then I pray for Bubb’s teachers & friends & usually wrap up with reminders for Bubbs, that he would keep his hands to himself, talk to a teacher if he’s needing help, not to hit friends or pull hair, & to show loving kindness to his friends & teachers.

Most any morning Bubbs is near constantly talking over my praying voice. He’s a very observational little guy & needs to point out all the wonderful things he can see on his way to school, usually the same things he sees on that drive like the yellow truck mailbox or the fire trucks in their garage at the fire station. I just pray away, hoping he understands someday that I’m talking to GOD & not just MYSELF…

Now that we’re in the thick of the Christmas season, there are a quadrillion number of new things for him to look at; namely SANTA and reindeer & “blow ups” as he likes to call them & Christmas lights & of course, the list goes on…

Hubbs & I have never officially had a conversation about what we were going to do about Santa & the kids, but it’s just kind of happened that we let Bubbs enjoy the moment of seeing the guy all over town & that’s about that. Currently my thinking is, why hide it? It is utterly ridiculous to try & convince a child or anyone else that Santa doesn’t exist.

If you have eyes or ears, you will no doubt KNOW that Santa does in fact EXIST.

Of course he’s not a real person – many times we see more than 1 Santa on different lawns on the same block. So there – how can he be 1 person & be in front of 12 different homes? Case closed. He’s not real in THAT sense. But yes, Santa & everything about him exists, so why try & deny or ignore him? For the time being, we’re having fun with Bubbs as Hubbs takes him on nightly walks to look at the lights, the blow ups & yes, the Santas.

But when it comes to praying to Jesus on our morning rides, it’s just that much more difficult to be heard when Santa is nearly all around my sweet Bubbs. He can’t “see” or “hear” Jesus the same way he can observe Santa. But he can read about Jesus, he can talk to Jesus (and thankfully, so far, I’ve never heard him speak to Santa…), & he can “be” Jesus to his friends, to his teachers, to his brother in his own little preschool way.

And that’s what I hope to teach Bubbs this Christmas. Santa will always be around. The world will always have distractions, year-round, to keep him from speaking to & hearing from Jesus. But we need to keep praying & hoping & listening, regardless. Because Jesus will be the answer every time in every situation. And that is a reason to celebrate all year long.