One of my favourite movies is “Fiddler on the Roof“. I love the music and the story, until the end when they are cast away from their homes.
Tevye’s first song is “Traditions” in which he sings about the way it is and how things have been done the same way for a long time, why change, this is how it works and as far as they are concerned it works well.
Then he is faced with challenges concerning his traditions, that being the marriage of his 3 eldest daughters . The first one pledging herself to her intended (a poor tailor instead of a wealthy man) without the “Papas” approval.
The second one marrying a new ideas educated Jew who was fighting for the rights and freedom of the Jews in Russia. They told the “Papa” they were marrying without his permission – another break in tradition.
Then there was the 3rd daughter who ended up marrying a man who wasn’t a Jew behind her “Papas ” back and was excommunicated from her family and her friends, it was as if she had died.
You can see how with each daughters marriage the “Papa” bent just a little bit and then a little bit more, he struggled with the traditions of his faith and his cultural ways.
What traditions do we carry out because it has been done that way for years?
Maybe it’s attending the same church because our family does. Maybe it’s just attending because it’s a family tradition not because of a living faith.
Maybe you send your kids to a certain school or college because it’s the place where so many family members have attended or maybe you don’t eat red meat on Fridays. There are so many things we do out of tradition, without questioning,
I have been doing a lot of thinking on this topic lately and I think some family traditions are great, daily devotions, meal times together, teaching our children about God and encouraging their own relationship with our Lord.
I also think that we should continually challenge ourselves on our faith and our lives to make sure we are truly connected to God and His leading in our lives, not just living out of our families traditions or our own, and as it says in Philippians 2:12 let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.
I know I should watch that movie. It’s a classic. Soon! 🙂
Hey Lux, it is a great movie, quite sad in the end but well worth watching. Thank you for stopping by. Blessings
This movie is a family favorite — even though I have a house full of boys instead of girls! The song you focus on has become a household habit here. If anyone clings to a practice “just because we’ve always done it that way,” everyone bursts into singing: “TRADITION–TRADITION——-TRADITION!”
Wow that is wonderful Michele, we do things like that as well. The music is just wonderful and has such depth, I would love to hear you all singing it. Blessings to you and thanks for stopping by. xxxx
Great post. I love how you thought to use this movie to write this post about tradition. I agree with you. I think we should challenge or ask ourselves if our “traditions” are truly connected with God.
Have a blessed week!
Thank you Chris, so much that we do or think comes from how it has always been done, not always because it is right. Blessings to you and thanks for sharing today.
Family traditions can be a wonderful thing! However for young people in love they can become problems that can never be over come without an argument or problems. Traditions here in the United States vary according to where your relatives came from. Also it depends on the part to the county you live. People in the southern part of United States seem to have more traditions.
Thanks Tom for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on my post. It is interesting how things can be so different in one country depending on your background. Blessings to you
Oh friend, that rut that is familiar is often the hardest of ruts to break! Oh might we go higher, leap wider, reach into unknown territory for His sake! Because great things…most often live..outside of our comfort zones.
Thanks for sharing this at UNITE this week! Love having you!
Jen Avellaneda
http://www.richfaithrising.com
Thank you so much Jen for taking the time to comment on my post, thank you also for the place to link up on Tuesday. I love that – higher, wider and unknown territory for Jesus’ sake, what a challenge and what excitement. Blessings
The name of the man who invented Tevye is Shalom Aleichem. He wrote many stories about Tevye and and village where he lived.
You can look him up in your library and on amazon.com. Well worth the search! They are charming stories.
Many of our family traditions were started by us. As first generation believers there were some we had to cast aside.
It’s never too late to introduce new traditions!
Thank you so much Judy for stopping by and sharing that information, I will definitely be looking it up, and you are right, it is never too late to introduce new and better traditions. Blessings
For my military mind, it’s not tradition; it’s doctrine.
You do things a certain way not because it’s the ‘best’ way, but because it translates easily, and fits into the operating of a larger whole.
Applies to life, too; part of our traditions are there because they slot easily into the lives around us, and make us truly a community.
I’m here from Coffee and Conversation; #7 this week.
Thank you so much Andrew for sharing your thoughts on my post and I am thankful that you stopped by. Blessings to you.
Love this! You had me at “Tradition”–an all-time favorite song from an all-time favorite movie! My marching-band daughter is fervently hoping a song from this show will be the closer for her senior marching band program next year. : ) We are BIG on traditions in our family but are facing a decision right now to go where we have not gone before. Thanks for sharing this wisdom…stopping by from Coffee & Conversation!
Hey Elizabeth, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us. May God lead and guide you as never before as you step into the unknown. Blessings and have a great week.
This is one of our family’s favourite movies. The movie is sad but hopeful in the end that there may be a reconciliation.
I agree with you about evaluating why we do what we do. My husband and I have often said that we don’t want our children to just live as we do because that’s how our family has always done it. We want their faith to be theirs – that they would know why they believe what they believe.
Thank you so much Jennifer for sharing your thoughts on my post. I agree our children need to have their own faith and sometimes their own traditions. Blessings to you and have a great weekend.
Traditions are easy to fall into, not only as individuals but as a group of people. I think mainly of Christianity, in which many of us, for many years, accept certain aspects as dogma because that’s the way it’s always been, but do not take the time to search the Scriptures, for ourselves, and see if what is pronounced so firmly and unquestioningly is so firm after all.
It took me years to realize that I was perfectly free to do this, and if some of my findings went counter to the teaching of the particular denomination we found ourselves in then, well, that was no big deal. If there were one firm answer on the many many questions, then there wouldn’t be so many opinions out there!
Hey Carolyn I so appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. We were the same, it took us years too, to realise that we had the scriptures at our fingertips and that we could check them out for ourselves. Thanks and blessings to you.
I agree, some tradition makes memories and something to look forward too. But sometimes we need to break out of our comfort zones and do what we’re called to do, and be who we’re supposed to be. God moves in mysterious ways and we have to be open to where we’re called.
I love Fiddler on the Roof too! You bring up some great points! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays each week and I do hope and pray that you are healing nicely 🙂