Tradition!

Does this post title make you burst out in song (Fiddler on the Roof)? It does me, for some reason.

I loved Sister Lant’s talk in conference on traditions. A couple of quotes from her talk: “Are we consciously creating righteous traditions or is life just happening to us?” “Will [our children’s] hearts and life be full of the traditions that make it easy for them to accept and follow the Lord and the latter day prophets?” Her talk has made me reflect on what we do in our house and what we can do better. Traditions truly are the means of passing values down to future generations. So I’m going to share a few ideas (some of ours and some of others) and then I would love to hear what you do, what you grew up with or what you would like to do at some point. All of us will benefit from sharing so if you feel so inclined, please share!

On the wall of our upstairs family room I have a photo collage along with the words: faith, service and integrity. For each of those values we have a quote. After scriptures each day, we recite one of the quotes (we rotate monthly). I will be honest and say that there are many a day that we hear complaints about saying the quote, but I feel like it is valuable—and now I have Sister Lant as back up (yay for back up!). After family prayers everyone heads off to do final preparations for school: making their lunch, packing their back packs etc. They are also supposed to say their prayers; often those slip. But when President Hinckley died, I started singing his song “Don’t Ever Forget to Pray” after we finished family prayers and now when we ask right before they leave if they have said their prayers, the answer is yes. Traditions make a difference.

My friend, Shauna, told in a sharing time that to gather their family to FHE they sing “Here We Are Together”. It started when her boys were young, and they still do it now that they are all teenagers!! They tried stopping at one point and the boys wanted to keep it up!)I think that is so awesome!

My sister, Danna, always puts the Primary Children’s Song CD on to play as her kids go to sleep.

Long before I married Tom, I remember his dad saying in Sunday School how his son-in-law, Justin, read scriptures to Abby from the day she was born. When I mentioned this memory to Tom, he started doing it with Tess. Now they have a little bedtime ritual of playing hide and seek in her closet, brushing teeth, reading scriptures and saying prayers every night.

So what traditions have you thought of that you would like to share? I’d love to hear them.