What are some of your family traditions?
What do they commemorate?
Who started them? Why?
Most family traditions we take for granted. We don't stop and think about those questions very often, but the reality is that someone started them for a reason. Family traditions are a great way to keep family history alive, if we talk about where the tradition came from, who started it, and why they started it.
I have to confess that I have never given any thought to my family's traditions. Most of out traditions were centered around celebrating holidays, but I just always figured, "That's how you celebrate Christmas. That's how you celebrate Thanksgiving."
Even when I got older and began to realize that my friends didn't celebrate holidays the same way as my family, I never really stopped to consider why that was. It never dawned on me that someone started our traditions, and for a reason.
God is the One who started traditions and ceremonies. He wanted His people to remember the promises He had made them, and also how He fulfilled many of them. He also wanted His people to talk about them and pass them on from generation to generation. This is where I have dropped the ball with family traditions. We just don't talk about where they came from as a family.
19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”- Joshua 4:19-24
After the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to enter Canaan, God commanded Joshua to set up a monument to this event. This monument wouldn't just give the people an opportunity to tell future generations about what happened here, at the Jordan. This would also be their opportunity to tell their children about how God delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.
God is intentional about His monuments and traditions. From this monument at the Jordan to the Passover to the wearing of clothes. All of these things show how God has loved His people in the past, but they also ensure us that He will fulfill all of His promises that have not yet been fulfilled. And God wants us to tell the next generations. We need to pass it on. Not just the traditions, but more importantly, what they mean. We need to talk about their significance.
As we begin to approach the holiday season, I encourage you to start thinking through your family traditions. Talk about them. Start some new ones. Thank God for all of the blessings He has given you, and your ancestors before you.
God bless
Jason Fredrick
What do they commemorate?
Who started them? Why?
Most family traditions we take for granted. We don't stop and think about those questions very often, but the reality is that someone started them for a reason. Family traditions are a great way to keep family history alive, if we talk about where the tradition came from, who started it, and why they started it.
I have to confess that I have never given any thought to my family's traditions. Most of out traditions were centered around celebrating holidays, but I just always figured, "That's how you celebrate Christmas. That's how you celebrate Thanksgiving."
Even when I got older and began to realize that my friends didn't celebrate holidays the same way as my family, I never really stopped to consider why that was. It never dawned on me that someone started our traditions, and for a reason.
God is the One who started traditions and ceremonies. He wanted His people to remember the promises He had made them, and also how He fulfilled many of them. He also wanted His people to talk about them and pass them on from generation to generation. This is where I have dropped the ball with family traditions. We just don't talk about where they came from as a family.
19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”- Joshua 4:19-24
After the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to enter Canaan, God commanded Joshua to set up a monument to this event. This monument wouldn't just give the people an opportunity to tell future generations about what happened here, at the Jordan. This would also be their opportunity to tell their children about how God delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.
God is intentional about His monuments and traditions. From this monument at the Jordan to the Passover to the wearing of clothes. All of these things show how God has loved His people in the past, but they also ensure us that He will fulfill all of His promises that have not yet been fulfilled. And God wants us to tell the next generations. We need to pass it on. Not just the traditions, but more importantly, what they mean. We need to talk about their significance.
As we begin to approach the holiday season, I encourage you to start thinking through your family traditions. Talk about them. Start some new ones. Thank God for all of the blessings He has given you, and your ancestors before you.
God bless
Jason Fredrick
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