Traditions

Last week, I took my second little pilgrimage, for my little granddaughter’s birthday, to a cabin in the Chickasaw State Park for a couple of nights. There’s one important lesson I solidified in my grandmother mind through the events of this second trip; one thing I really didn’t think about last year on the first trip to the cabin. 

Maggie wanted to go to the same park. She wanted me to try and get the same cabin. Once we got there, she wanted to make the same brownies, play in the exact part of the lake, find the wounded bird pavilion, go to the park office and look at the same stuffed animals, and roast marshmallows. She wanted her little brother, Ellis to come for the second night. All of these things were the things we did last year.  She even wanted to go to FHU and eat in the cafeteria. She wanted exactly the same things we had done the previous year! I was struck by this. What I might call “old news” or “monotony”, Maggie called exciting. I learned anew, that in the minds of children, tradition is a precious commodity. Maggie wanted her little brother to come with us on the second night, but not the first…just like last year. 

I remember that family traditions were important in my own childhood and in the years of Caleb’s and Hannah’s childhood. But I had never given a lot of thought to the grandparent/grandchild traditions we can and should be building. Why are family traditions (especially annual ones) so very important in childrearing? 

1. They create a spirit of sanctification; not in the sense of sacredness, but in the sense of set-apartness. Traditions set our family apart from the “rest” of the people. Only our little circle can know and remember certain joys that happened in shared traditions. This makes membership in the family exclusive and special, in a good way. 
2. They let the children know that there are certain people/events in our lives that are important enough to repeat. The memories are solidified and the events are anticipated eagerly from year to year. 
3. Fun traditions make our children know that the Christian parents/grandparents know how to have fun in a better way than does the world around them. This is going to be important down the road. 
4. Traditions provide a memory bank, for the future, that is just for your little circle to share—in conversations, in letters, in photos—all through the coming years. These are things that, one day, will be discussed, with fondness, at funerals. 
5. Done the best way, traditions together are full of talk, devotion to and reverence for God. You don’t have to be in a worship assembly to be putting faith in kids. Now, don’t miss the worship assemblies of your people, but some of the best faith building times, in the growing years, are the family Bible times and the all-day-long Deuteronomy 6 kind of teaching in life. They will remember this teaching when they are remembering family traditions. 
6. Traditions help children find steadiness and perseverance in the things that matter. It will become hard to find the time to repeat activities when your children become teens. When they watch you work around schedules to be sure it still happens, it builds stability and lets them know that they are important on your list of priorities. 

Repetition is absolutely necessary on every learning curve. I hope yon  are carrying out wholesome family traditions.