traditions book quote 10

Some closing thoughts on traditions from Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noel Piper...  (Yes, I'm almost done with the book!)

Someday another generational shift will happen for all of us, and our children will be contemplating the same questions.  So we need to ask ourselves:

• Am I preparing my children to be the "older generation"?
• How well am I doing at teaching them to value the most priceless and endless treasure of glorifying God and enjoying him forever?
• Am I myself glorifying God and enjoying him?

Answers to these questions must come from every area of our lives together.  Through their years with us, our interaction with our children will show them who God is and how he acts.  Let's shower them with love and discipline in the broadest sense and convey as much of God as they can understand at whatever age they are.

In this book we have paid special attention to the role of traditions, because they reach into so many corners of a family's life, shaping and reflecting our understanding of love, discipline, and God.

Dive from the ideas here into the traditions you choose and form to fit your home and your family in this chapter of life.  Your celebrations shouldn't try to include every detail you've read here.  They should have God at the center.  

Let's just remind ourselves of what we're after:

• Remembering what God did for his people, for us, and 
• giving glory to God for what he's done,
• so our children and their children will know him.

If we want our children to know him, it's not enough just to be "doing" the right activities or using the symbolism of God's Word and work.  We must remember to be "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).  Without the verbal part, our traditions will become unfocused - beautiful, maybe - but without much point (p. 103-104).