Too Long in the Sun

[shengy]

Being a parent I am often reminded of the example I am setting for my children but more important than that, is the sealing of images and memories in the minds of my children as they grow.

One of the things that baby boomers are known for is “revisiting” their childhood, i.e. I grew up with visions of sugar plums dancing around my head, loads of presents on Christmas day, festive lights, caroling, etc. therefore I want to pass these same traditions and “memories” on to my children, making it even harder for them to oppose the temptation that has shaped the mind of every American citizen. It’s like a progressive lie that the enemy sows with each generation, sealing the deception further and further into the minds of people until there appears to be no way out.

In my own mind, I see myself as a child waiting patiently for the day when I could open up the beloved doll I waited all year for and perhaps if I was a really good girl, I might get that bike or roller skates I wanted. I see my father picking out the tree, my sisters and brothers and I decorating it with the treasured ornaments we made each year at school, each one holding a special memory of Christmas’s gone by. I see my father wrapping presents and using numbers instead of names so we wouldn’t guess which one was ours. I see my mother with fresh coffee and cinnamon rolls as she waits for the family to rise. Sleepy eyes hugging her before we sat before the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree. I see mom and dad in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner, with all the wonderful smells of pies and turkey basting in the oven. I see all of the toys and stockings and friends that come to visit. I see the church all decorated with evergreens, red ribbons, and the nativity scene with the baby Jesus. And then I am awakened from this perfect dream to the reality that this is all an allusion invented by an enemy who longs to see me put ALL of this before the commandments of God.

It is the same enemy who desires for me to transfer this act of disobedience to the children that innocently look to me for guidance. How can I lie to them? How can I say that Christmas is the birth date of Christ, when I know it is not? Are their childhood memories more important to me than their obedience to God? And how clever the enemy was to center the day on something as innocent as a baby. Everyone loves a sweet innocent baby. Chubby cheeks, their smell, souls untainted by the world. Even if you didn’t have one of your own, the baby Jesus is there for all to claim, right? The deception is perfect. Perfectly planned, perfectly cultivated, perfectly accomplished. Two thousand years, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little until all is in perfect unity with Satan’s plan. Like Balak, who wanted desperately to curse the people of God, devised yet another plan to place a stumbling block before them. If you can’t beat them join them or better yet, let them join you. So too is the situation before us, and our children.

How can we stand innocent before God, claiming to be commandment keepers when we have lied year after to year to our children? As I see my own nephew, only five years old, excited about Santa Clause and Baby Jesus and a little sister now following in his footsteps, establishing memories of deception under the pretext of “just having fun,” I am grateful that my own children will never have to wrestle with the Christmas demons that I have had to wrestle with in my own mind. Perhaps this is the time to break the ties that bind us together with the world, before it is to late.

Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall OFFEND [4624 - cause to sin] one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

[Watchman]

[L-Chaim]

If childhood memories of tree decorating, Christmas jingles over the stereo, family times around the tree and "baby Jesus" live on in memory as warm, wonderful times, then it is simple enough to realize that these are just that: warm memories. So . . .

In leu of evergreen trees, holly, pot-bellied stoves and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"... "for Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day," it's a no-brainer to fill our children's lives with wonderful, annual memories of cleaning the house before Pesach (Passover) and hunting for every element of leaven, sharing the Pesach meal, reading the story of the plagues on Egypt and the successful flight into the wilderness, the gathering at Rephadim and hearing the thundering Voice announce His great Commandments. And then all the joyful memories of how Messiah Yeshua has done the same for all "the Father giveth Me" Every year, the gathering of saplings and other materials as a family and bringing all that home in the back of the pickup or trailer and teaming together to construct a sukkah. Then memories of how our Redeemer was made flesh at such a time, born in a sukkah (not an animal stall) in the Fall of the year (not on Mithra's birthday), his flight from Herod and all the rest. This is done every year and the memories our Creator told us to implant will live on. Even the every week memory of preparing for Shabbat and then upon sunset, the entire demeanor of the house becoming one of expectation as Scriptures are read, prayers are offered up, and the Most High visits in ways that seem to excel above those of the rest of the week during Bible reading and prayer times. These are holy and sacred memories of joy, warmth, family, and commune with the Elohim of Creation and being part of the nation into which the Spirit of Messiah grafts all who come to Him in repentance and faith.

This is what I call "embellishing the mitzvot." Instead of viewing the handful of instructions as the route to death and "who can do ALL THAAAAAT?," ... from love and gratitude, we find creative ways to not only follow the simple instructions of Torah, but to make them beautiful.

The Commandment says to not steal. To teach one's children the importance of that precept is basic. Teaching them how to give to those who need and thereby reducing their temptations to illegally take, the Commandment is embellished, made beautiful and is a sweet smelling savor to the Giver of these few little guidelines for life.

In doing these things, we find we are not raising children; rather, we are raising parents who will do the same for their children because of the precious memories of their own youth.

By all means, with biblical regularity live and follow the several instructions that the church at large calls "all that" and in opposition to grace. And in doing so, we take part of the promises of Isaiah 58 in repairing the breech and restoring the paths to walk in. Our children and grandchildren will rise up to call us blessed.

Already, in this generation, we have young people, young married folk with children who have memories of observing the beauty of the Commandments and are planting the same memories in thier offspring as well as setting them up for the greatest of blessing. In opposition to the bleating cries of churchmen that obedience to the Commandments is some kind of effort to "get saved" (and some people do that), we know the fullness of the words, "If you love Me, keep my commandments." "He that saith, I know Him and keeps not His Commandments is a liar and there is no truth in him." And we can be certain that "His Commandments" are exactly what He delivered to Moshe on Mt Sinai (Dt. 18:18; Acts 7:26).

What a joy to get old having our own memories of raising our children and watching their children walk in the beauty that was given us!

L'Chaim
_________________
"It's not bondage; it's bonded."