Day 56...Tradition Talk

Dear Sadie,

Easter is coming up next weekend.  I haven’t given it much thought at all, except for thinking about the massive amount of pastels and bunnies everywhere!  Every time a holiday rolls around, I have mixed feelings about it.  Sometimes I want to be indifferent about it just because of all the hype.  I don’t like hype about things that don’t matter.  It’s not that I never get into celebrating things.  I celebrate birthdays.  I celebrate Jesus often.  I celebrate you kids all of the time.  I think about how important Jesus holidays are for formal remembrance; it’s just that I like to remember His life and sacrifice on a daily basis.  Do we really need a holiday?  How much of our time honored traditions have eternal value?  And for the parts that are just “fun,” are they worth the expenditure of time, money and energy?  These are the questions I struggle with.  I have no soapbox.  I just wonder.  I want you kids to grow up with traditions, but ones that will have a lasting impression on you, and ones that will point to Christ as supreme.  I see parents putting so much effort into celebrations, holidays and traditions, and I wonder if it all is necessary, even beneficial.  Sometimes we parents put too much emphasis on secondary things, when children are much more satisfied with far less.  If I could leave anything with you as far as what I understand at this point, it would be to give thought to your actions and form traditions with firm conviction.  If it doesn’t sit right in your heart, toss it out.  Ask the Lord and He will direct you.  Don’t worry about what others think about it.  Enough said.

Love,

Mommy

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”  Deuteronomy 6:6-8