The Value of Tradition

I love Christmas....I love the message of the season; I love the unity it brings; I love the love that is shared amongst family and friends.

I love the traditions.

Tradition....it is the glue that holds one generation to the next.

 A young mother is preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Her daughter watches with interest as the mother slices off the ends of the turkey before placing it in the roasting pan. 

The young girl asks her mother why she did this.

The mother pauses for a moment and then says, "You know, I'm not sure. This is the way I always saw my mother prepare a turkey. Let's call Grandma and ask her."

So, she phones her mother and asks why they always slice the ends off the turkey before roasting.

The Grandmother thinks for a moment and then says, "You know, I'm not sure why either. This is just the way I always saw MY mother prepare a turkey." 

Now the two women are very curious, so they pay a visit to the great-grandmother in the nursing home.

"You know when we prepare a turkey," they explain, "we always slice off the ends before roasting. Why is that?" 


The old woman replies, "I don't know why YOU do it, but I never had a roasting pan that was long enough."

These women all had something in common...the way they prepared the turkey. Even though the reason (for cutting the ends off) became non-existent after one generation; the next simply followed because it brought an identity and a comfort that "I come from something of value." 

As a child, my family always opened Christmas presents on Christmas eve after my father read the Christmas story. Thus, with my own children we have followed in the same manner. My children all think it is silly to wait until Christmas morning, but that is simply because they value "tradition."

Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ and by sharing gifts and love with one another, we take note of the great love that was shared with us some 2,000 years ago. Traditions pass this message; an enduring one for all generations.

I have a red "you are special" plate that is used to celebrate birthdays in our house (another tradition). On Christmas Eve after we open gifts, we simply have cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. An open spot sits at our table with the red plate sitting for Jesus.

Some traditions may not pass from one generation to the next simply because they were not of lasting value, the message is not passed, or one does not value tradition and wants to create his own way. May we be careful in tossing aside that which gives life its rich meaning.

Our girls received an ornament each year as they grew. Upon marriage, I have handed that box of their ornaments to them to hang on their Christmas tree.

The tradition of love and family being passed down. Most years the ornament depicted a life event; now they have a visual diary of their childhood.

I sigh with utmost gratefulness for the traditions handed down to me and new ones created with my girls....they create a sense of belonging....belonging to the One that created family and love.

Traditions celebrate who we are and where we have come from.

May your Christmas envelope you with the love of that tiny babe; celebrate His goodness, maybe revive that which you loved as a child? Ah, yes....mom made caramel rolls on Christmas morning....it really isn't the rolls, but the connection to mom that lives on. :)

I have learned the value of tradition.

Thanksgiving: A National Holiday

I love Thanksgiving...not only the turkey and the fixin's, but the family and friends that gather together and...

.....give thanks.

Most of us when we think of Thanksgiving, think of the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims and Indians held; but did you know that President Lincoln, during the Civil War, instituted the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday? A day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father?" I was so moved when I read his decree that I deemed it worthy to post in hopes that we look at this holiday in the light for which it was instituted.

 

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:29

May we give thanks not only on the fourth Thursday of each November, but every day of the year.

....and his decree was on my birthday! :) How neat is that?! I now have another item to be thankful for on my birthday!