Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A MIXING OF FAITHS

After sharing with our family Declan's desire to celebrate Hanukkah, my husband's aunt(a nun) felt it necessary to send our children a "Christmas" coloring book, each page has a prayer and a picture of the Christmas Story. I thought this was very nice until I spoke to my mother-in-law who informed me that the book was not sent so much out of kindness as to remind us that OUR Family is Christian, and we need to refocus the children on that(I will have you know that at first glance of the book, all three of my kids knew it was a story about baby Jesus).

Boy, did I want to throw the book away after that! We (mostly me) have chosen to raise our children with as much knowledge as we can about other religions and cultures. We live in an area with great diversity and do all we can to introduce the kids to it. We also travel a great deal, mostly to vacation, but this is another great opportunity for our children to encounter people different than they are. Oh well, I will get off my high hose now, and accept the book as a kind gift and enjoy helping my kids learn about Jesus, after all, that is what Christmas is all about, right?

No comments: