Treasuring God in Our Traditions

After blogging about wanting to have traditions that are God honoring, Jon came home from Lifeway with Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions.  I was so excited and devoured this book in about two days. 

Noel Piper defines tradition and gives several reasons that establishing traditions is important.  In chapter four, she discussed how traditions can teach our children about God, about faith, and about our family.  Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."  Using everyday traditions, we are reinforcing the way we think about God through even mundane tasks like going to bed at night or waking up in the morning. 

One tradition that Jon and I have started with Buddy and Sweetpea is to pray with them before they go to bed.  I don't say the same thing every time but there are certain phrases that if I miss, Buddy is quick to remind me.  For example, every time that we have rocked and prayed together, I would pray for God to "keep Buddy growing big and strong and smart and healthy!" and to "come to know Jesus at an early age as Savior".  The rest of our prayer changes with what we've experienced that day but those phrases are constant.  I hope Buddy and Sweetpea remember one day that Jon and I took the time to talk to God with them daily.

Noel Piper continues to discuss different ways to have traditions in big events like weddings, funerals, birthdays, and especially Christmas and Easter.  I really liked a lot of her ideas for Christmas and Easter and hope to incorporate a few into our family's celebration next year.  Even this past Sunday at church, my Sunday School class was discussing how to establish traditions for the Christmas season with children.  All of our desires was to make sure the focus was on the birth of Jesus.  All of the Christmas ideas in this book are ways to do just that. 

If you are looking for ideas and reasons to start God-centered traditions in your family, I highly recommend Treasuring God in our Traditions.  It isn't a hard read or even a long read but it definitely is thought provoking!