Traditions in family life are very important.  Traditions in the family create the foundations for legacies to be built for future generations.  I began a tradition about thirty-five years ago when I had a scavenger hunt for my oldest child at Christmas time.  Debi had to figure out the various clues that would send her to the next clue and ultimately to the last clue that would end with her best gift.  I have been doing that every year at Christmas and at Easter for the last thirty-five years.  I now have a scavenger hunt for the grandkids and a more difficult one for the older kids.

Today my middle daughter got engaged to a wonderful man who had a scavenger hunt leading her to eventually being surprised as he proposed to her and she accepted.  Traditions.  They’re what hold families together and give meaning to the term family.

Nadine and I recently toured Taos Pueblo, a place where Native American Indians in New Mexico still live without running water or electricity or bathrooms.  They do this because they don’t want their children to forget the traditions of their roots.

As you can see in the lower right picture they still cook their food in these mounds heated by wood.  Traditions.  The picture to the left is the remains of the church that the Taos Indians flocked to as the last stand before the Spanish burned it to the ground with many of the tribe in it.  It remains as a memorial to those who went before to seek to preserve their culture.  Traditions.  Legacy.

Moses gave us a template for taking truth to the next generation.  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 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 on 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 doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  Deuteronomy‬ ‭6:4-9‬ ‭Moses exhorted the older generation to teach the truths to the next generation.  That teaching can be through words as well as traditions.

On this journey there will be temptations to gravitate to the fast and easy path.  Holding onto traditions of our family  may take longer but in the end those traditions will be passed to the next generation and the next.  It may mean that you choose to start a tradition that will eventuate in being carried to the next generation.