What’s that, mom? You work two jobs, have a hard time affording groceries to put on the table, and you couldn’t even decorate a doll house if your life depended on it? Come on, moms, how on earth do you expect to be able to invite your neighbors – let alone the world – into your Christmas if you haven’t decorated your home beautifully, cooked seasonal delights, and kept the right traditions?

Kirk Cameron made a movie that came out over the weekend. In this promo for the film he inexplicably puts a heavy burden on moms while trying to sell some movie tickets:

If you are a mom, if you are a wife, if you’re the keeper of your home, I want you to know that your joy is so important this Christmas. Because Christmas is about joy and if the joy of the Lord is your strength, remember the joy of the mom is her children’s strength so don’t let anything steal your joy. If you let your joy get stolen it will sap your strength.

Let your children, your family, see your joy in the way that you decorate your home this Christmas, in the food that you cook, the songs you sing, the stories you tell and the traditions that you keep. Invite your whole neighborhood into your Christmas, and invite the world into our story of our king and his kingdom.

Join me and go see “Saving Christmas” November 14.

Let’s break it down.

Moms, Wives, and Joy at Christmas

If you are a mom, if you are a wife, if you’re the keeper of your home, I want you to know that your joy is so important this Christmas.

I like the idea of encouraging people who have a hard time finding joy at Christmas time. If he left it here, perhaps with a follow-up that said “I made a fun movie that might put a smile on your face while we focus on Jesus”, there wouldn’t be much to talk about. But then he says something that borders on blasphemy:

Because Christmas is about joy and if the joy of the Lord is your strength, remember the joy of the mom is her children’s strength …

Certainly the Bible tells us that “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10. In context, it looks like Nehemiah is telling people to be strengthened by taking joy in the Lord.) Nowhere are we ever told that the joy of the mother is a child’s strength.

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