I was standing at the kitchen sink, methodically snapping green beans one by one and it hit me, "I could be doing this an easier way".....so I got out my knife, cut, cut and I was done with the pile...why didn't I think of this sooner??? Tradition...
It is like the story of the woman cutting the end off of a ham to put it in the pan and then the oven to bake...her daughter asks, "why the cut?"
" I don't know, but that is what my mom did, let me ask"
" I cut it so that it would fit into the certain pan I had". Tradition.....
I realized that I hand snap green beans because we did it that way..we would harvest beans and then sit on the porch or In the kitchen, visiting, while we snapped the beans for a meal or for canning or freezing...part of the ritual, work and fellowship...I think, if I still had my grandmother or mother, I would still sit and visit and not look for short cuts...just enjoy their company...
I have to sit back and think ever once in a while, "am I doing this out of tradition or is this the best way?" That goes for church and my spiritual side as well..is it just a habit or what?
Jesus called out religious leaders on traditions, man's ways...to examine themselves and their ways...were they following God or man...were they "looking good" for themselves...were they really worshipping or was it habit?...were they praying in earnest or fame?...
I have to do the same, ask the same questions of myself...habit or real, tradition or real, exalting myself or God.....looking good or humility...then rectify the situation, attitude for the right reasons....
Thank YOU for traditions, but help me the find the "best", and not just fall back on habit...search for You...not just for the comfortable .....be approved by You not just people....
Matthew 15:1-20 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “‘These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain;their teachings are merely human rules.’” Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
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