There are quite a few
articles out there about that little North Pole dweller who perches on shelves
and with stalker-esque precision watches your every move , reporting each to
the big guy in the red suite. For the
next few Mondays, I’ll give you an amalgam of my favorites…completed by moi.
We’ve done the
Shelf-dweller for the past few years, but when I stumbled [*ahem* Pintrest-ed] across the idea of an
elf who requires grace, by Leena over at A Small Snippet, I immediately wanted to revamp our tradition;
teaching the kids a practical spiritual lesson, while having so much fun? Yes, please.
So I did.
Thus our new tradition of Jingle-Fapple, Naughty
Elf was born.
Our elf came the day after
Thanksgiving, bearing a gift for the family, and sitting sweetly on the counter
delivered a personal letter from Santa.
In his letter, Santa explained that our elf almost wasn’t allowed to
come back to us this year. He’d been
that bad! But, because Mr. Claus knows
that the Firefly and Koala are consistently well-behaved and king children,
Santa hopes that our elf will see good behavior modeled for him and changes his
ways.
The kids loved this! I can’t explain how much. They were being praised for kindness and good
behavior by the big guy himself! What an
ego boost. And it still allows me some
wiggle room on the inherent correction: “we want to show J.F. how to behave;
let’s help Santa by making better choices.”
After his arrival,
however, our elf was exceptionally naughty.
So much so that the Officer wanted to kick him out of the house (the
Officer is such a trooper—always going along with my deceptions). But the kids were determined to show this little
guy grace and to love him, even though they ended up having to do extra work
because of the elvish antics. I was
greatly impressed with their fortitude and kindness towards this stuffed {ahem}
character. For the remainder of this
year, instead of reporting back to Santa, J.F. will be pranking us nightly, as
he lives out the impression that he’s covered by grace, so good behavior doesn’t
matter. However, Santa hopes J.F. “learns”
good behavior by watching the Firefly and Koala, as well as receiving directed
mentoring from them on an individual basis.
(They’ll be talking to him about his behavior and how he could make
better choices.) Hopefully, the kids
will take away the idea that every.single.one needs our grace. And in order to influence someone for God’s
kingdom, you have to be their genuine, true friend every day. Even when they’re not acting lovable.
My plan is to diminish J.F.’s
naughty behavior and replace it with acts of kindness, as he “learns” from his
hosts. Not entirely realistic (in the
context of real-world relationships), but neither is the idea that Santa needs
an army of elves to do his watching for him.
So, here’s what the little
guy’s been up to so far:
Day 1: Showed up, with a
personalized letter to both kids from Santa himself.
See Santa’s letter here.
Day 2: Ate all the
remaining Halloween candy (to Mom’s delight)
and “spray painted” the dog.
Also, hid the car keys
atop the tree…for the same reason.
And that brings us up to today. Less creeper-stalker elf, and more an idea of
how to live a grace-filled life, even when the folks who most need it are
difficult to live with.
Enjoy your Christmas prep, dear ones; just don't forget to have some fun, too!
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