Creating Traditions -- Creating Memories

by Brandon Jubar

It's the Holiday Season. The time of year that tends to carry with it more memories than any other. It doesn't matter whether the time remembered was one of abundance or need, chances are good that the memories are cherished -- and hold profound meaning for us. Knowing this, we should be all the more aware of the fact that the things we do today are the memories -- and traditions -- of years to come.

Turkey-Time at Grandma's

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving meant a trip to Grandma's house. It was a time when all of the extended family -- aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins -- all gathered in the tiny house on Forrest Road.

Thanksgiving was a houseful of kids playing. It was Lions football on the TV. It was turkey, and ham, baked beans and mashed potatoes, pies and cookies, and Aunt Jeanie's homemade bread. It was the smell of food and the sounds of kids laughing, guitars playing, and voices belting out the old songs.

When I was really young, we didn't have much. But Thanksgiving was a time to enjoy the wonderful things that we did have -- family, food, and fun!

Traditions Are Important

One of those things that can be good or bad is tradition. Sometimes tradition ends up being "habit", and we can find ourselves trapped in boring routines. Or sometimes tradition can simply be our way of avoiding change. In pursuit of a well-maintained comfort zone we often settle for mediocre traditions that carry little joy, just familiarity.

Advent and the Christmas season are rife with traditions -- both religious and secular -- and this can be a wonderful thing. When traditions are based upon good, wholesome, Christian values, they make it easy for us to get in the right frame of mind. It becomes much easier to be kind to people, and to reach out to those less fortunate.

Good traditions become a part of us, and they evoke certain emotions and thoughts. Much like the Traditions of the Church, our family traditions bring us quickly into the moment and allow us to be fully present -- both physically and emotionally -- to the wonderful people around us. Especially during the Thanksgiving holiday, this ease of focus makes it possible to truly appreciate and be thankful for the blessings God has given to us.

New Family Traditions

This Thanksgiving, many of my family members will once again gather in that little house on Forrest Road. However, my wife and sons and I will not be making the trek to Grandma's house because we now live over 2,000 miles away.

This year we will drive across the state of Texas -- a little 12-hour jaunt -- to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family. It will be a smaller gathering, but we'll have moms, dads, aunts, uncles, and cousins all covered. We won't be breaking out any guitars, and Aunt Jeanie's homemade bread will only be a fond memory, but there will still be plenty of family, food and fun! Our boys will still have fond memories of Thanksgiving -- just not necessarily from that same little house on Forrest Road.

I pray that our boys will cherish these memories we are making today in the years to come. I pray that any new traditions we begin are ones that they will be proud to carry on with their own families some day. And I pray that what we do today will instill in them an understanding of the sacredness of this season, and the importance of creating traditions... and memories.

Life Applications:

What comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving?
What are the traditions you remember from your childhood?
What traditions do you have with your family now?

Copyright 2002-2008 by Brandon Jubar
All rights reserved.