traditions book quote 4

Sorry about the length of this quote, but I loved what Noel Piper said about how traditions teach us about God.  From Treasuring God in Our Traditions...

We are always teaching our children, whether we mean to or not...  It was God's design that learning happen by frequent and regular repetition.  That kind of learning was part of what he had in mind when he told his people to teach the children his words, "talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise" (Deuteronomy 11:19) - note how frequently and regularly.

... when our activities are filled with God, we have to be thinking about God; so our normal activities are helping us fulfill God's command to "lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:18)... with enough repetition, the very activities, no matter how mundane they are, will trigger thoughts of God in our minds...

In order to "teach [God's words] to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise" (Deuteronomy 11:19), you have to be planning - planning what to say and where, how, and when to say it.  For me, not planning means my children receive a burst of God-talk for a day or two.  Then when that particular gush of affection dies down, we're back to just taking God for granted, rather than talking about him and recognizing him in all the parts of our day.  That's not what I want to teach my children - that God is experienced in a random pattern of a few days of enthusiasm followed by days of silence.  One of the things Deuteronomy 11:19 makes clear is that God doesn't like being taken for granted.  Rather, he wants to be talked about a lot.

... We yearn for [our children] to love and trust and follow Christ.  It would be foolish just to wait for them to learn that by chance.  We must plan to reflect God and teach about Christ in the repeated events of our lives (p. 34-35; emphases mine).