Traditions

I know I promised that I would have study helps by today, I will try to get them up tonight. This week has been busy and the baby has been active and keeping me hopping. I do need to admit that today I was working on trying to find images for my blog face lift. I am having trouble and can't believe that I can't seem to search and get just the right thing. I guess it will come, but I am getting impatient with my plainness.

Today I was thinking about why we do things? Why do we cook the way we do? Why do we clean house in the order we do? Why do some people have to do a thorough spring cleaning and others just clean as usual and maybe wash the windows? Why do we talk to babies like we do? I repeat things to them. Try to get them to know what it is. Other people just talk baby talk and do not tell them what something is.

When my first husband was in seminary we lived in Indiana in a mobile home park. The park was all Christians, either college, seminary or retired missionaries. Most of the people were about my age and I thought my way was the way everyone did things. I just thought it was THE way. Not arrogantly, I just thought everyone did it that way. I found out that there were all these people and we all did things and made things differently.

I used cloth diapers (had no choice back then) and would hang them on the clothes line. My diapers were white as the day I got them. Do you know how many people came up to me when those diapers were on the line and wanted to know how I got the diapers so white? I just assumed that was the way everyone's diapers looked. But, I found I did things differently than others and mine were white.

We learned from each other, at least those of us that were willing to learn. I discovered just how much tradition played a part in what we do. There were some there who would not change. Their family did it this way and that was that. They did not know why things were done as they were, but they did not want to acknowledge that there might be another way to do things.

I heard a funny story about tradition. A woman was cooking a large ham and cut the ends off before putting the ham in the pan. Her husband asked her why she did that. She said it was what her mom did so she did it. He told her to ask her mom and find out why. When she asked her mom why she always did that her mom said "Because my mom always did it that way". The daughter pressed the mother to find out why her grandmother cut off those ends. When the grandmother was asked she said "because my roasting pan was too small for the ham, so I had to cut them off to get it to fit".

Three generations cutting off the ends and two not knowing why. Traditions. They can be good and they can be bad.

I look at Christians and how many of us are caught up in traditions. We do not know why we do things, we really do not know what the Bible says about what we do, but we do it thinking it is the right way. That is until someone breaks our bubble and challenges us. Why do you do as you do? How about your church's traditions? Are they according to the Word of God or are they traditions of men?

As I sat rocking the baby today those thoughts were running around in my head. I need to examine my traditions and ask "why" and is it in God's word to be done differently?