While on our date, Joshua and I started talking about birthday traditions. Daniel's birthday is coming up soon and we have not thought about what kind of traditions we want to start. I read Noel Piper's book about family traditions and treasuring Christ in those traditions but that was a while ago so I don't really remember specifics!
We both decided that I should look at that chapter again and we can talk about this topic again. But we did continue our discussion. Some of the things we talked about were what is the point that we want to get across in the celebration of birthdays? > It seemed like that was a good question to start with because then that would drive what we decide to do. We decided that we want it to be a celebration of the person (kinda obvious!) and a way to treasure the gospel and Christ. So with that, our next question was what are things that we can do to make it a celebration of the person, but make sure they don't think the world revolves around them? What things can you do honor Christ or make much of the gospel in a birthday celebration? We also talked about the importance of having traditions because it gives stability and expectation for Daniel and any future kids that we have. We are probably going to be living overseas and might have a somewhat varied schedule, so we think having traditions would help give continuity to a child's life. So we want whatever we do for birthdays to be something that can be easily replicated with multiple children in varied settings.
We don't like the idea of giving other siblings a present on the birthday of another sibling as seems to be the current trend. It seems like it would be a valuable lesson to teach the children who's birthday it is not, to rejoice for their sibling who is getting gifts and having attention given to them.
And we didn't get much further than this. We are having a hard time coming up with tangible things you can do and not just say that will give a birthday celebration more meaning than only the celebration of the persons life. So we decided to ask our parents and others what they did/thought on this subject. So if anyone actually reads this and has traditions that they do, or ideas they have heard of for birthday traditions we'd love to hear them. We are specifically looking for ideas about how to have a gospel centered, Christ exalting birthday celebration.
4 comments:
My pastor and his wife write a letter to each child on their birthday, reviewing what they have seen God do in that child's life over the last year. They keep them all in a special binder for the kid to have. I think that's a wonderful idea!
-Rachel A.
What about a Psalm 139 type of tradition? We are celebrating the wonderful blessing that God gave us. Each year you could talk about how you can see God in your child due to a character trait you see in them--generosity, kindness, compassion, etc. Sure being a year old that would be difficult to start but I'm sure even now you see that in Daniel (perhaps joy). Of course I don't have any kids and am a ways away from having any, so I don't know if this is helpful at all.
That is a good thing to start thinking about! Mike and I discussed in length how to have a Gospel Centered Christmas morning with our children and things we want to do to keep the focus on Christ during that time, but we haven't thought about that in light of Birthdays - very thought provoking I must say.
I don't have any ideas, but I am going to start talking about that with Mike - especially, since we are (way too fast) approaching the boys 2nd birthday! I really like that idea that Rachel gave - that would be a very special way for them to look back and see the love of their parents, the love of the Lord and the ways that the Lord has continued to work in them throughout their life!
One thing we try to do with our kids on their birthday especially, is talk about their names. Each of our children have names from the Bible that have good meaning and great stories that go with them to illustrate the gospel and character qualities we would like for our children to have. It sounds a little different for each child--Nathanael gets a little more explanation than Talitha does, but through the years, they will get a deeper understanding about their names and why we picked them. If we have friends or family over, we try to read the stories from Scripture that include their names and give the explanation in the guests hearing as well, which provides an opportunity to edify others in the faith as well.
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