Party!
…be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things [of God] your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live.
Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
– Deuteronomy 4:9
As parents and grandparents, how are we supposed to do this – teach our children and grandchildren what we know of our God?
By throwing parties!
More than once God commanded the Hebrew people to pass down stories of what He had done for them from generation to generation. How? By setting aside a day – or a few days – to feast together. The Festival of Booths and the Passover are two such celebrations. These were intended for an annual rhythm of inter-generational discipleship.
In Exodus 12:26 God tells the Hebrew people a primary reason for the Passover feast is to incite children to ask, “What does this celebration mean?”
That question was to spark a conversation between parents and their children, between grandparents and their grandchildren – recalling God's faithfulness to their generation and what it implies for the lives of the next.
In the book of Joshua God offers the same rationale for making a stack of stones: so the next generation will ask about it and be reminded of the relevance of their faithful God. [Joshua 4:6, 21]
According to these texts, setting aside days and places to remember God’s faithfulness is a significant aspect of passing a living faith on to our children. And for maintaining our own.
Before the year is done, Sarah and I want to review our twenty years together with an eye for significant moments of God's leading us or interceding for us. Calendar in hand, we plan to set them down as "Brygger Family" feast days.
Having a handful of “feast days” to celebrate God’s specific faithfulness to the Brygger tribe would be significant for our family’s discipleship.
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Start looking for significant moments of God's faithfulness in your life. Have a place to write them down. Your calendar would be a good place – it allows you to take note of them year after year. Even if you don't have "feast days", having them written down will allow you to someday recall them to your children, or to your grandchildren.
I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past –
things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.
We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the LORD,
His might, and the wonderful works He has performed.
– Psalm 78:2-4