Today's Encouragement

The Power of Remembering through Traditions 

Jessica Smartt

“And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Exodus 12:26-27a (NIV)


I forget stuff like it is my job to forget stuff. I forget where I put things (glasses and car keys come to mind). I forget to call people back, and I forget appointments.

The only way I am not a train wreck of a person, truthfully, is because I have put in place systems to help me remember. You have systems, too, I bet — keys in a spot, notes jotted down, reminders on your calendar. Without ways to remember, things would slip through the cracks.

But how do we remember The Big Things? Do we have a “system” in place to remember God’s love? Do we have routine ways to invest quality time with each other? To serve others regularly?

I have rediscovered that there is such a system, and it is called “traditions.”

Traditions are a passion of mine because they saved our family a few years ago. One moment I was scooping out blueberry oatmeal, the next I was sitting in an PICU room with my very young son who had had a life-threatening allergic reaction.

Though I was grateful he was going to be OK, I was not sure I was going to be OK. I found myself struggling with a lot of regret. Were my husband and I doing this parenting thing right? Were we spending time on what mattered? Were we passing down our faith to our kids and taking time to show them love?

We needed a system to remember.

We needed traditions.

It’s not my idea, by the way; it’s God’s. If you read the books of Exodus and Leviticus, you’ll see these books are jam-packed with ceremonies and rituals and feasts — God essentially telling His people, “Remember me. Remember how I saved you.”

Moses told the Israelites in Exodus 12:26-27a, “And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’"

Of course, traditions today are different from the unusual ones we read in the Old Testament, like rubbing sheep’s blood on doorframes during Passover. But the principle remains the same: We repeat meaningful things, and we remember God.

Since that scary day in the PICU, we’ve put quite a few traditions in place to honor our faith, our values, each other. Here are a few:

We sing hymns in the morning and read a devotional.

We feast on a “Sunday snack dinner” and read a chapter from the New Testament.

We have a “family day” once a year to celebrate our family.

These traditions are anchors in our days, our weeks, our years. They break the monotony of life and remind us: This is what you believe. This is who you are. This is what you love.

God knew we would forget, and He gave us traditions. How are we using this good gift?