Reading through the Old Testament with my kids (via Eegermeir’s Bible Story Book) has taught me a lot. Simplifying things to the bare essentials does much to reveal themes in the greater story. Today I am struck by the reason given for Israel’s frequent slides into idolatry. We are told that, over and over, they forgot what God had done for them, and began to worship other gods.
Doesn’t it seem strange that turning away from God is blamed on a failure of memory? What about, “The children of Israel found the worship of a fertility goddess more interesting”? Or, “The children of Israel got tired of traveling all the way to Shiloh to worship the Lord, and longed for the convenience of an Ashera pole”?
But no, the Bible tells us they strayed because they forgot. Without the bright truth of Yahweh’s covenant before them, the prevailing beliefs of their time must have seemed reasonable, even practical.
I believe God knew this would be a struggle for His people, and that’s why so many of Israel’s faith traditions – the feasts, the fasts, the tassels, and tefillin – are devoted to remembering. It is why we were given Holy Communion, and the reason behind many of our Christian holidays.
Beyond the church calendar, though, I have noticed that families often develop their own rituals of remembrance. My favorites are the little variations, like the family who reads Bible stories at supper time, because they have the best conversations then. But I have also seen elaborate systems like the family who collects prayers of thankfulness in a seasonally decorated basket, to be offered together at special times.
So I’m curious: What does your family do, on a regular basis, to remember?
He continues to write about adventure, backyard wildlife, and realizing there are no ordinary places, and you can find him at JamesDWitmer.com.
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I know you said, “beyond the church calendar,” but really, it’s the church calendar that forms a lot of our family’s remembering: we light a candle and say a (very) short litany every night at dinner before we sing or pray; the candle is the color of the church season, and the litany is thematically appropriate for the season.
My kids and I pray together (most) every morning; prayer includes Psalm recitation/memorization, Scripture reading (sometimes from the Bible, sometimes from a story book like Sally Lloyd-Jones’), prayers of thankfulness, prayers of intercession, and the Lord’s Prayer.
And sometimes when we get grumpy with one another (which we invariably do, on a near-daily basis), my husband and I play a game with our kids in which we each name one thing we’re grateful for about each of the others. It’s amazing how quickly this diffuses our grumpiness–largely, I think, because it reminds us that we love one another, that we even like one another; we just have to get past our current frustration long enough to remember.
Thanks for this post. I’m going to be thinking about our rhythms and rituals in terms of remembering–see how that changes them.
This is great, Kimberlee.
Your candle tradition is just the sort of thing I was thinking of; taking church traditions outside the church and into your home. And I like your gratitude game; it sounds like a fun way to recapture a right perspective.
Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Thanks for this, James. I love what Kimberlee said. Wow. I guess we do this most intentionally around Advent and Christmas, and then we sort of struggle to land the rest of the year. Last year I tried to connect the Christian Year a little more intentionally, with limited success. But we do the Bible reading, prayers ritual, though at present it’s not every day.