{"id":11894,"date":"2012-11-27T13:55:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T21:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/momservations.wordpress.com\/?p=11894"},"modified":"2012-11-27T13:55:59","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T21:55:59","slug":"in-the-name-of-the-father-son-santa-elf-on-the-shelf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momservations.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/27\/in-the-name-of-the-father-son-santa-elf-on-the-shelf\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Name of the Father, Son, Santa &#038; Elf on the Shelf"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Momservation: <\/b>If the threat of Santa not coming and a tattle-telling Elf on the Shelf is the cornerstone of your discipline strategy \u2013 good luck with January.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">\u00a0<span style=\"text-align:center;\">\u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u263a<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a pretty sad testament what our society has come to that Santa has more pull than Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>That a creepy little tattle-telling elf on a shelf is more effective than asking: What would Jesus do?<\/p>\n<p>But who am I to judge? My kids think the church down the street is called Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow.<\/p>\n<p>When I tried to get a little Jesus in my then 4-yr old\u2019s heart by sending her to a Presbyterian preschool she had this to say about snack time prayer:<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cI don\u2019t know why we bother thanking God for our snack. EVERYBODY knows that food doesn\u2019t come from God \u2013 it comes from the grocery store.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>When my son was little I backed off our theological discussions worried they might be doing more harm than good. That\u2019s because my increasingly paranoid child kept asking these types of questions about our all-seeing God:<\/p>\n<p><i>Does God see me pee?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Can God see me naked?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Does God smell farts and know it was me?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I don\u2019t think I can poo if God\u2019s watching me.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019ll admit, I\u2019m not the best shepherd of our young flock. It doesn\u2019t help when a blogger friend of mine told a story on his blog, <a href=\"http:\/\/somespecieseattheiryoung.com\/2011\/03\/28\/a-hard-attack-from-hellcat-and-the-big-j\/\">Some Species Eat Their Young<\/a>, about his young daughter after catechism condemning every little thing he did wrong with: <i>That makes Jesus sad.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Rather than feel inadequate that I didn\u2019t also have my children diligently attending Sunday school, I was seeing dollar signs with a funny new T-shirt:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.customink.com\/signup\/1x4skae4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11895 aligncenter\" title=\"JesusSad\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/momservations.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/11\/jesussad.jpg\" height=\"287\" width=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maybe if you\u2019re good you can get it under the tree this Christmas!<\/p>\n<p>But only if the creepy elf hasn\u2019t told Santa on you. You know, he can see you pee\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who needs Jesus when you can keep kids in line with Santa?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[843,844,845,2,846,86,3,5,28,161,847,848],"class_list":["post-11894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting-humor-2","tag-disciplining-kids","tag-disciplining-with-threat-of-santa","tag-elf-on-the-shelf","tag-family","tag-jesus","tag-kelli-wheeler","tag-kids","tag-momservations","tag-parenting-humor","tag-santa","tag-santa-vs-jesus","tag-teaching-religion-to-kids"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In the Name of the Father, Son, Santa &amp; Elf on the Shelf - Kelli M. 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