As you know, if you have been reading grandma’s
cookie jar leading up to Christmas, I love celebrating Christmas with my
grandsons. We start celebrating after Thanksgiving dinner and continue for the
full month until Christmas. We do fun things – like Candy Cane Hunts, we make
ornaments, we build snowmen . . . or snow octopus’ . . . we enjoy the
celebrating at Christmastime.
But, along with the celebrating, my husband and
I do something which could be considered “controversial”. We tell our grandsons
the truth about Santa Claus. They are young – three, five and eight, but we
tell them while the original Saint Nick was a real person who loved God and
cared for others, Santa Claus is not real . . . he is just pretend.
Our grandsons know why we tell them the truth
about Santa, even though they are little. It is because we want them to know we
will always tell them the truth. It is because when we tell them there really
is a God who created the world, and them; we want them to believe us. When we
tell them this God loves them; we want them to believe us. When we tell them
they need to make the choice to love, know and walk with this God; we want them
to believe us. When we tell them this God hears, listens to and answers their
prayers; we want them to believe us. The point is, we want our grandsons to
believe us when we tell them the truth about God, so we are focused upon always
telling them the truth, so they will grow up knowing they can believe and trust
us.
We also tell them the truth about creation. We
tell them God created the entire universe. When we walk outside and see God’s
creation; we talk about how God created all they can see. When we watch a
nature show on tv; we talk about how God created all they can see. When we
start to use the telescope which arrived yesterday; we will talk about how God
created all they can see – and even beyond! We talk about how one day there
will be teachers at school who try to tell them the universe just happened, and
we talk about why this makes no sense. We tell them the truth, because we want
them to believe the truth.
And, as much as it breaks my heart to have to
have these conversations with my grandsons as young as they are, we talk with
them about how God created them to be the boys they are and God knew what He
was doing when He created them to be boys! We talk about how happy we are they
are boys (If they were girls, we would talk about how happy we were they were
girls.) We talk about how there are some people in the world who think there
are times when God made a mistake and made a boy, who was really a girl, or a
girl who was really a boy, but then we talk about how this is not the truth. We
talk about how sometimes they pretend they are a superhero, or ninja, or robot,
or how their little brother likes to pretend to be a dog, but even though there
were times in their lives when they really believed they were superheroes,
ninjas, robots or dogs (when they were younger) they are not actually any of
these things. We have had conversations about how even if people think they are
a girl when they are a boy, or a boy when they are a girl, it does not really
make them what they think they are. We talk about how God never makes any
mistakes and they can absolutely trust Him. We tell them God created them to be and
do amazing things and help them find some of the wonderful things about the
boys God made them to be. (The two oldest ones think it is wonderful to be boys,
because girls are way more annoying
than boys!) We tell them the truth, because we want them to believe the truth.
And, on this particular topic, I know it isn’t “politically
correct”, but I love
my grandsons and I do not want them to experience the pain which comes with gender confusion. Linda Ranson-Jacobs, a friend of mine, shared the text for a workshop she recently taught on this topic. She shared how; “Dr. Paul McHugh,[1] the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and the current distinguished service professor of psychiatry, was a pioneer in transgender surgeries, but stopped doing them and urged others to stop. Dr. McHugh and others actually studied the surgery's long-term effects. The reason they stopped? McHugh concluded this was an attempt to treat a psychological problem with a surgical solution -- and it wasn't working. It still isn't.”
my grandsons and I do not want them to experience the pain which comes with gender confusion. Linda Ranson-Jacobs, a friend of mine, shared the text for a workshop she recently taught on this topic. She shared how; “Dr. Paul McHugh,[1] the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and the current distinguished service professor of psychiatry, was a pioneer in transgender surgeries, but stopped doing them and urged others to stop. Dr. McHugh and others actually studied the surgery's long-term effects. The reason they stopped? McHugh concluded this was an attempt to treat a psychological problem with a surgical solution -- and it wasn't working. It still isn't.”
She went on to share about the serious side
effects people face with long-term hormone treatments, such as; “With adults, hormone replacement increases
tumors as well as many other issues. Menopausal women on hormone replacement
are encouraged to get mammograms and yearly pelvic exams because of the potential
of cancer. And now we are giving children and teens hormone replacement
therapy. No one is sure what hormones are doing to the children who are
receiving them. The ages of children receiving hormone replacement therapy are
getting younger and younger.”
It is not being “kind” to be “politically
correct” with our grandchildren. Exposing them to the very real side-effects
from surgeries and hormones; including cancer, blood clots, diabetes, and a
significant increase in depression and suicide (as many as 40%-60% of people who transition from one gender to the other commit suicide) are not the futures we want for our
grandchildren. So, we tell them the truth. We want our grandchildren to see
themselves as the fearful and wonderful creations of a God who loves them and
who knew what He was doing when He created them to be boys.
We tell our grandsons the truth, because we want
them to believe the truth.
Because we want them to trust God. Sometimes telling the truth is difficult – brings about difficult conversations, but it is essential for us to be people who always tell our grandchildren the truth. If we want our grandchildren to grow up trusting God, we have to help them learn and believe the truth from when they are little. One way we do this is by being grandparents who always tell our grandchildren the truth. If they know they can always trust us to tell them the truth, they are more likely to believe us and go on to experience and learn for themselves how they can trust and believe God. And isn’t this the path to a life of joy? Of course it is! So, we are grandparents who tell our grandsons the truth; and are intentional about doing so.
Because we want them to trust God. Sometimes telling the truth is difficult – brings about difficult conversations, but it is essential for us to be people who always tell our grandchildren the truth. If we want our grandchildren to grow up trusting God, we have to help them learn and believe the truth from when they are little. One way we do this is by being grandparents who always tell our grandchildren the truth. If they know they can always trust us to tell them the truth, they are more likely to believe us and go on to experience and learn for themselves how they can trust and believe God. And isn’t this the path to a life of joy? Of course it is! So, we are grandparents who tell our grandsons the truth; and are intentional about doing so.
Let’s be intentional Christian grandparents who
are intentional about telling our grandchildren the truth; it matters for so
many reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment