Tuesday, November 21, 2023

The Misguided Loyalties Of Christmas, Part 1: Tradition (Tell His Story)




Care for some baseball-sized hail, anyone?

The holidays are coming!

Time to cringe, like a deer caught in the headlights.

It doesn't have to be this way. It's not supposed to be this way.

But every year, with each good intention marshalled, we do it to ourselves, and so often all ends in tears, the ugliest of which are unshed.

Any why? We try earnestly to make the season special, and at the end it's almost always a disappointment.

Perhaps it might be a result of misguided loyalties.

This is the first of a three-part series.

This week, let's talk about loyalty to tradition.

We try to be loyal to the past, to the Christmases we remember, and to the people who made them special.

We want to live in legacy, to see ourselves as part of a chain of tradition and joy, stretching our loving arms to the past, and handing our treasured memories to the future.

There's truth in our recollections, but memory is fallible, and we gloss over the time Dad was carving a turkey and cut off his middle finger, rendering him unable to express himself.

Or when Mom lassoed Uncle Edmund and duct-taped his mouth because he said Talk To The Hand one too many times!

Jeremiah 17:9 says, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?'

So the heart lies, but knowing this, we don't have to accept and honour its message.

It's dumb to ruin today with comparison to a rose-tinted yesterday 

God has something to say about this, through Ecclesiastes.

7:10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.

Yes, you're supposed to honour you parents and their example, but does it honour them to try to wedge today into the mold of an imagined yesterday?

So put up a keepsake ornament, but make Christmas and Thanksgiving your own.

After all, didn't Jesus say, in Revelation 21:5,

'And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.'

Music from Bon Jovi, with Lost Highway

Sylvia thinks all Christmas Eve traditions should include a trip to McDonald's for ice cream.





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14 comments:

  1. That sounds more like perfection, than tradition, Andrew. I think the key is to keep our eyes on Jesus. When we seek to honor Him, the Perfect One, everything else (tradition, desires, etc.) seem to fall in their rightful places. May you and Barb have a grace-filled Thanksgiving.

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    1. Lisa, good point!

      We're blessed this Thanksgiving; Barb had a bad fall yesterday, broke some bones, but no permanent damage.

      Hope you and yours have a great day!

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  2. Great point! In trying to hallow an occasion that’s already holy because of what happened on the first Christmas, we succeed in wearing ourselves out!

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    1. Michele, indeed...trying to add new layers of 'holiness' is exhausting.

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving from one turkey to another!

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  4. This is such an important point. Traditions should enhance the meaning of holidays, not create stress and distraction and then take away from actually celebrating.

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  5. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrating in a way that is meaningful to you!

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  6. May you and Barb have a most blessed Thanksgiving!

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  7. Andrew, such a wise post! Yes, we should make each tradition our own. I. may have grinned (a little) at your examples of the things we omit in our memories of holidays. Definitely been there. God has shown Hubs and me the importance of making our own traditions with our sons. And this will, most likely, continue to change as our sons one day welcome wives into the family.

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    1. Jeanne, I love how you developed this, that tradition is dynamic.

      I guess a new one started here this morning. Cocoa Chihuahua stole my bed, so at 4.30 I am in a hard chair, writing. He looks too comfortably happy to move.

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