Tradition

Dec 20, 2012 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

Now I absolutely love traditions, especially when it comes to Christmas time. They help us to share moments together with our families, live out life together, and give us memories of those special times with special people. Traditions are such connecting, memory-making, and relationship-building times.

Traditions give us something to hang on to, give us those spaces and places to laugh, love, and live together as God designed and desires. Traditions give us those occasions and events to remember those closest to us, as well as, those in our past with whom we shared life. And helps us tie generations together relationally.

New traditions for your family give you those special moments that help strengthen your family and develop memories remaining special and unique for your family.

Some of our traditions have been handed down from our own families, but many others we have chosen to “create” or implement for our family.

Now, as our kids began to grow, some of the “traditions” seemed a little too archaic to them or they were getting a little too old for them to be fun. We did not eliminate them, and our kids tolerated them for the sake of their siblings or to humor us as parents…but we kept them.  Now we’ve adjusted them due to schedules, adapted them due to the age of our kids, or found some new ones to include, but we’ve kept our traditions. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t long until our kids were beginning to initiate these traditions or ask about them to make sure we were going to keep them. These traditions really were family-bonding times together. We have often said, and tried to live out, the motto of create the experience to make the memory (another blog for another time). Looking forward to another year of loving and laughing with the traditions of the Christmas season.

For those of us who had some wonderful traditions…

• What is a special memory for you of any family traditions when you were growing up?
• What traditions do your family share today?
• What traditions could you consider starting?
• What memories do you want your children to have that bonded your family together through traditions?

~Jim