This week the kind lady of the parsonage approached me with a serious question.

As for me, life is full of questions, but coming from it, I have to be very careful. I discovered that a question with her is not simply a question. It can be much more than that with multiple layers. I’m still trying to figure out the dimensions of your questions.

If I don’t understand your question, my answer is going to get me in trouble. Trust me; I know what the problems are about.

I have several cats in the neighborhood that I feed. I’m not sure where they come from, but they show up on the back porch for the free goodies I offer them. This has also attracted possums, raccoons and foxes who come for the goodies I have there for them.

Most of them are somewhat anxious and try not to get into trouble as much as possible. I can certainly relate to that.

Last week my wife bought a new carpet for the back porch. It was red and it looked great. Showing it to me, he said, “Make sure you don’t spill anything on this new rug.”

I must not have been the only one who heard that. Since then, none of my “critters” that come to my back porch have stepped on that carpet. Everyone walks around and looks at it like it’s something very special.

I understood your dilemma as I have faced that dilemma myself many times.

However, the question the kindly rectory teacher asked me was, “Are you on Santa’s good or bad list this year?”

Hearing that question made me uneasy. If anyone knows the difference between naughty and nice, it has to be my wife. I guess good old Santa gets some advice on this from my wife. If I’m on your naughty list, then I know who put me there.

I’m not sure I can ever remember that I was on his nice list. There must be a story behind that, I’m sure.

Precisely what does it mean to be naughty from Santa’s point of view?

For a moment, the temptation danced in my mind to ask my wife about this, but I was sure that if I did, she would tell me and tell me more than I really wanted to know.

I tried to reflect throughout the year to see if there was any indication that I had crossed the line somewhere in the naughty area. I couldn’t think of any, but I’m sure I was missing something.

What I’m trying to find out is, how do I get on your nice list? Is there anything I can do to get off the naughty list? I am open to all kinds of suggestions here.

Not that I worry about being on Santa’s naughty list. I can handle that. I just don’t want to be on my wife’s naughty list. Certainly that is my goal in life. I will do anything within reason (if I have any reason) to not only be on your nice list, but also to stay there.

I must confess that there are times when I lean towards the mischievous. I hope Santa never sees me at that stage in my life. More importantly, I hope my wife never sees me at that stage.
Naughty, for me, is doing something behind my wife’s back. For example: eating an apple fritter is best done behind my wife’s back. If you see me eating an apple fritter, it will remind me that it is not in my diet.

When you say “my diet”, you mean the diet that was imposed on me. If you look at my diet, it includes apple fritters and more, not hers.

Personally, I do not consider it bad to eat according to my diet. I don’t know of anything more pleasant than sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and a fresh apple fritter. So it’s so much better when I don’t get caught.

As for the question, am I on Santa’s good or naughty list? I’m not so sure. Throughout the year, I tried to stay out of the naughty and focus on the good. I must confess that it’s hard trying to focus on being nice when naughty is so much easier.

Another consideration is, why should someone who only visits once a year know anything about whether I’m mean or nice? How can their judgment be correct if they don’t watch me all year long?

So to answer my wife’s question, I simply said, “I think I’m on your good list this year.”

She just looked at me with one of “those looks” and I knew her belief and mine were on different pages.

I thought about what I read in the Bible a couple of days ago. Something King Solomon said. “That you walk in the way of the good and keep the paths of the righteous” (Proverbs 2:20).

The important thing is not whether I am naughty or kind or whether I am on Santa’s list. The important thing is to surround myself with “good men.” The companions I keep are the ones who will help me walk the path of justice.

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