It’s October, and the holidays are right around the corner! While I’m sure this brings a smile to some of your faces, simultaneously a collective sigh can be heard from mothers around the world. Along with the holiday season comes commitments. Sometimes these commitments seem stifling, and they interfere with our family time. Are all of our commitments and traditions even worth it?
I would say yes and no. While of course family time is always worthwhile, is it really necessary to visit Aunt Edna’s for a third round of Thanksgiving dinner?
Over the past few years, my family has made several new traditions while shaking off old ones. In doing so, a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I’ve also been reminded that traditions create familiar rhythms within our home, and our children often look forward to these special times.
The very definition of “tradition” speaks to this truth. It is defined as “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.”
Traditions are transmitted from generation to generation. I’m sure you can remember the traditional sights, smells, and sounds of your childhood. The question is, do you want to pass these traditions to your children? If your family partakes of too many good traditions, how do you weed some out? And where do you turn if you would like to add a few new traditions to the mix? Are some traditions one size fits all?
I hope to answer these questions and more over the next few weeks, from a Christ-centered perspective. As we begin our study, let’s remember that in all things, we should concentrate on the lovely. Nothing else is worthy of our focus! You can find a short video about this topic below:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Philippians 4:8
I hope to see you soon!
Read Part 2 of this series here.
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I’m looking forward to your posts! Totally agree with your points in the above article.
Christmas is my favorite holiday, but December is not my favorite month… because of those commitments. It just doesn’t take much to send a family over the edge,stress-wise, and December so easily becomes a “Oh, please, just let it be OVER” type of month. Each year I work on improving our traditions, commitment levels, and other various holiday-factors so that it can become more meaningful. I think having a maid or two around would help! 🙂
Hope your new little one is treating you gently!! 🙂
Thank you Diana! Our newest addition has been the most easy going baby we’ve had so far. We are enjoying her immensely!
One of my aspirations with our kids has been to have traditions — but not in the Fiddler on the Roof sense that they rule our lives and are meaningful only to my generation. This has been a challenge as the boys have grown. It blesses my heart when my grown up boy carries on a tradition in his own home that he loved when he was young!
Yes! Thanks for sharing!
I’m more of a carefree person who likes change but I have a daughter who LOVES tradition so I’ve tried to make sure I set traditions for her. Thanks for the great reminder on the importance of them.
~Sherry Stahl
xoxo
Thank you for stopping by!
My pleasure!
This year we will be facing some changes in our usual Christmas Eve routine as the Aunt whose home we all gather at has packed up and moved to warmer climate in Florida. So…that leaves us open for a rare chance to start our own tradition. I think I am going to ask each person what is one thing that they would like to do every year and start from there. I know I would like to walk the beach across the street at sunset