The Cross and Christmas

God taught me an important lesson today through teaching the 4s and 5s children's church this morning. The philosophy for our children's ministries comes from Desiring God ministries. They deliberately keep their curriculum God-centered. We had a children's ministries meeting for all those where were going to be involved in teaching in children's ministries this quarter back at the end of September. We watch a DVD from Desiring God Ministries, which I highly recommend. I also read over some supplementary material in the curriculum about keeping the teaching God-centered. But as I have been preparing lessons over the last few weeks, I have notice that I have been rushed and have not kept the lesson God-centered. I had never been in a ministry that has really grasped the incredible importance of being God-centered even down the children's lessons. My church attempts to keep their focus biblical, and I think God is doing a great work in growing us in this area. As I was thinking over my lesson today on my way home, I realized how man-centered it was. Especially with children's lesson in church, it is so easy for a teacher to just teach the facts of the story and completely missing teaching about God, even if the curriculum is focused in that direction. When I asked the kids at the end of the lesson what they learned about God, they only told me facts about the lesson and not what truth about God we learned. That was my fault. I have determined that to help keep myself in check as I teach, I need to make a deliberate effort keep the focus on what we can learn about God and not just the facts of a Bible story. I am going to have a sheet of paper to hold up to them at the beginning that tells what we are going to learn about God today. As I teach the lesson, I am going to keep coming back how we can learn from the lesson the truths about God that I held up at the beginning. Then at the end, they should have a pretty good grasp of how they know God is like the truth I held up at the beginning.

The question I would like to pose to you is how to keep Christmas cross-centered and God-centered. On the drive home tonight, I was thinking about what I just shared with you above. I was also applying that to Christmas. The things I love most about Christmas are getting together with family, the music, giving gifts, and the whole ambiance of Christmas. It is often said that the true meaning of Christmas is lost in the buying of gifts and Santa Clause. I don't have much of a problem with the Santa Clause part. But the atmosphere of Christmas is what probably distracts me most from the Cross and Christ at Christmas. I have thought of this off and on, and I want to get your input on it. What are some biblical and practical ways of keeping the cross at the center of Christmas in our thinking, practice, and life?