New Traditions

My mom gave me this book a year ago, and like most great things for some reason I didn't pick it up and read it just then... instead it's taken me a whole year to dive in. I DO believe that God has perfect timing and it's so fresh on my heart to try and integrate Him in everything that we do... which is sooo hard to do these days. Ever since these verses in Deuteronomy became alive to Bry and I "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." We are striving to find ways to let the rue heritage of Christ be what we pass on to our children, not something that collects dust in the attic for generations.

Against our best efforts here comes Santa Clause right down Santa Clause lane and there are all kinds of other things to draw my child's eye from the single lit star above the manger. How unappealing a baby in a wooden box looks in lieu of lights of the houses with yards full of blown up blimp sized icons of our time. Part of me wants to think it's silly and it's nothing to fight for and it's just something to join in on, but I can't rest at night without this aching in my heart telling me to fight for truth in that little star. And to take the time to tell my little wide eyed girl, face aglow in the tree light, WHY we do what we do and to impress upon her the oddity that is SHE getting gifts, when it's really Jesus' birthday. You may be thinking "she's only two, what's the rust" or "so does this mean you won't give gifts or talk about Santa?" All this is irrelevant if the focus comes from to give or not to give, to Santa or not to Santa.

A haunting question came to me from the pages of this book I mentioned earlier....the one my mom gave to ME a Christmas ago (it's not my birthday either) it asks : "What do your greatest treasure, what is most precious to me? How do I express that treasure in my life? How do I pass that on to my children and those in my circle? Christ IS our greatest treasure... and we have to find creative and appealing ways to pass THIS inheritance on to our little followers who are trying to take it all in and find out what it's all about. If I truly believe that this time of year is most precious to me because of the promise that was being fulfilled in Christ being born, the gifts that we give to honor Him, the joy and the wonder...loving God, loving others, then I am going to fight fervently to make that known to my children more than a fat man in a red suit who comes to give them everything their hearts' desire. We are going to start traditions that honor God over the other, even if she wakes on Christmas morning with stockings full of presents, she will know it's really Jesus' birthday, and what He wants most is her heart.