Cheryl Lant gave a great talk on FAMILY TRADITIONS. It got me thinking...what sort of traditions do I remember growing up with and what sort of traditions do I want to create for our family? Of course, most families have a few "bad" traditions, but what about the good ones?
Family traditions can be social, physical, spiritual, and educational. I ask myself these questions:
- Are Wendy and I creating traditions that are balanced - some that are 'mortal' in nature AND others that are eternal in nature?
- Are we creating habits that will lead to well-adjusted kids who can thrive in society?
- Are we creating traditions that will teach our kids to rely on eternal principles?"
- Family vacation twice a year
- Boating trips every Saturday during the summer
- Boys watch football while girls talk during the games : )
Sure, it would be fun for the kids and may do wonders for the family's cohesion. But, what will it generate in the eternal scheme of things? Wouldn't it be better to add in things like:
- Daily family prayer and scripture reading
- Regular Family Home Evening
- Weekly church attendance
- Service activities
Cheryl Lant asked, "What kinds of traditions do we have?
Some of them may have come from our fathers, and now we are passing them along
to our own children. Are they what we want them to be? Are they based on actions
of righteousness and faith? Are they mostly material in nature, or are they
eternal? Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just
happening to us? Are our traditions being created in response to the loud voices
of the world, or are they influenced by the still small voice of the Spirit? Are
the traditions that we are creating in our families going to make it easier for
our children to follow the living prophets, or will they make it difficult for
them?"
I have two questions for you?
- What traditions did you grow up with?
- What specific and creative traditions do you want your kids to grow up with?
6 comments:
We had a lot of traditions growing up and its funny because when we get together now, we laugh about some of the dorky things my mom made us do, but are memories now! We had to go Christmas caroling every year to all of our friends' houses and stuff. Well, Birds can't sing and no one goes caroling in NJ, so basically it was the most embarrasing night of your life, especially when you had to go to like your boyfriend's or girlfriends house! We also had to read scriptures every morning before school and I remember my dad coming in every morning turning on both the light and fan...and saying he let us sleep in because it was like 6:02..thanks dad! We always did and still do a family vacation a year! I highly recommend that :) I couldnt agree more about the importance of traditions. I think it's important to have both fun traditions and the ones that make you grow. Ones that are embarrasing are probably the most memorable and the ones we laugh about now. Now that I jsut did a post myself I'll stop. Also, FAMILY DINNER! One study showed a that eating family dinner together helped a child succeed in school more than anything else:) Since moving to Lubbock, we have done really good at family dinner even if it's eating a sandwich..it's at the table together with a prayer, etc.
Yeah, Wendy was telling me about the family dinner article she read. It was CRAZY how big of difference it made! That is a really GOOD one!
In my last primary presidency meeting Sis. Riding shared this article as our "spiritual thought" and it's been on my mind ever since. I have been more aware this week about what kind of traditions we've been making in our family. Their are some I'm proud of and other not so much...
The "not so much" one's involve TV. For some reason my kids are feeling it is a "tradition" that they always get to watch cartoons after dinner while we wait for Kamron to get home. (I'm working on it).
One of the great ones that I noticed this week is our family prayer each night led by Kamron in the girls bedroom and as a reward for reverence during prayer, Daddy tells a story. Daddy's stories each night are a highlight and the girls are always so upset when they miss out beacause they weren't able to listen or sit still for prayer.
Last night I went in to check on Riley (she's ALWAYS the last one asleep) and she informed me...
"But, Daddy didn't give me a story!".
I've also noticed that the traditions that Kamron's family and from mine somehow end up ours...
Ex. from "Burnhams"-
We always opened one present Christmas Eve after we read the Christmas story.
Ex. from "Kenningtons"-
Kathy aways hid their Easter baskets and led them to them like a scavenger hunt.
My absolute favorite tradition growing up was every Christmas Eve my family would gather together food, clothes and gifts for a less fortunate family (my dad would ask the bishop for a family who was in need), we would pile in the car and deliver everything when it was dark. My dad would unload everything on their doorstep and then we'd drive away real fast after knocking. It was a real humbling and spiritual experience for each of us. It also helped us come together as a family and really appreciate our many blessings.
Matt and I read scriptures with the kids every night before prayer and the kids each get a turn to "read" a verse (we read it and they repeat). We've been doing this ever since we moved to UT and it has been wonderful. The kids LOVE when its their turn.
My mom is way into traditions as all of you family members know. Melissa is really good about keeping the family traditions alive and strong, however I am not so good. Nate and I were just talking about traditions and saying that we needed to do better. There is one Denney tradition that Nate refuses to carry on. The hour long Birthday Song!! Oh somebody's had a birthday among are children dear...etc..etc... etc....etc....
Do any of you Denney's still sing that??
I know, that song used to drive me crazy!! That's funny.
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