Traditions

 

As in many families, we have many traditions in our family.  

Among our Christmas traditions we have an Elf on the Shelf (ours is named Eddie) who moves around, creates mischief and leaves small gifts.  

Even with only one child left at home, who is 17 years old, we still bring him out on the first of each December.  

But tonight as I looked around at all of the efforts we go to to continue our holiday traditions, I had this thought.

Do I put as much intentionality into my Gospel traditions? 

President Cheryl C Lant spoke on a similar thought, "Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just happening to us? Are our traditions being created in response to the loud voices of the world, or are they influenced by the still, small voice of the Spirit? Are the traditions that we are creating in our families going to make it easier for our children to follow the living prophets, or will they make it difficult for them?"

The beautiful thing about traditions is they can be built for our families, no matter the size or characteristics.   

And the Gospel traditions are made for us all too.  

But the blessings from those patterns will only come if we make them a regular priority.