Customer Reviews

Treasuring God in Our Traditions

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When I was a child, I looked forward to each major holiday in our home as a time when we would do the same family activities in the same way year after year. Even today, I treasure traditions I grew up with and hold to them very closely. They continue to give me a sense of belonging, of comfort, and of anticipation. In Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions, she states that "both heirlooms and traditions strengthen our sense of history and belonging" (15). In our chaotic and hectic lifestyles, we need, as Christian families, to think through our traditions and intentionally set out to develop the best of what we grew up with, as well as the best of what we develop for our current families. Piper's book is full of practical suggestions and inspiration for doing just that!

Piper begins by establishing that the most valuable family heirloom we have is our relationship with Christ. If this is true in our lives, then we should structure our "everyday traditions" and our "especially traditions" around this fact. Traditions and ceremonies in our home become visual representations of our faith and allow our children, as well as visitors in our home, to see our faith illustrated in concrete and tangible ways.

The ceremonies, yearly feasts, and remembrances God gave the Israelites in the Old Testament speak of the power of such annual events. God designed these times as reminders for the adults, as well as teaching times for the children. Piper defines a tradition as, "The things we do regularly that help us in our deepest being to know and love and want God, the things that help our lives to be infiltrated with God--those things are tradition. And then if there are children in our lives, to pass these God-focused activities to the next generation--that's what tradition is for a Christian." (25).

The next question is how traditions are imparted, or how they teach the truths we want them to express. Piper responds with two main points. First, tradition must be intentional. It must be planned. We must think beforehand what we want our holidays to say, and then plan traditions that will support that teaching. Second, tradition must be consistent. We must do things the same way each year, while being flexible and realizing that some things change with the ages of our children, or the make-up of our family.

A particularly profitable section of the book is two chapters devoted to "everyday traditions". We often live very hectic lives with chaotic schedules at a haphazard and frantic pace. We do not have time to do intentional things, nor do we spend much time thinking about the day-to-day rituals of our lives. Piper gives many practical suggestions about ordering your child's day, scheduling one-on-one time with Dad, doing morning chores, accomplishing bed-time, going to church, and doing daily family devotions. All of these activities become much easier and happier when everyone knows what to expect. We also illustrate for our children how important they are when we make them part of our everyday traditions.

The next three chapters are devoted to "especially traditions" including weddings, funerals, birthdays, Christmas, and Easter. I found the chapter about Easter especially exciting as we tend to have many traditions around birthdays and Christmas, but perhaps fewer intentional traditions centered on Lent and Easter.

The only disappointment I had with this book was the lack of any real place for what I would call "just-for-fun traditions". While I would heartily concur with Piper that our traditions ought to speak of Christ and our Christian faith, and holidays in general are far too secular, I would also like to see a few fun traditions throughout the year. It may have been beyond the scope of Piper's book to include such events, but what about hunting for pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch in the fall, making strawberry pancakes on the first day of spring, or dying Easter eggs at Easter. While these kinds of things do not necessarily fall under the category of religious traditions, they can speak to a child about the joy of special activities reserved for special days. They can be fun times for the whole family, even if that is the only real spiritual lesson they impart.

I heartily recommend this book to all families whether you have children or not. All people, whether adults or children, need the special place of yearly traditions in their lives. We all need the comfort and assurance that there are some things we will do the same way every single time. Along with that, we can all be challenged to live our everyday lives with a little more ritual and dependability, making sure the intentional things we want to do are given the priority in our day. After all, God is a dependable God. These rituals and traditions are but a shadow of our God with whom there is no shadow of turning or change. May God bless your family, and the traditions you hold dear!

I'm a new mom and relatively new to the marriage thing as well. As we discuss how we want to raise our family, what traditions from our own backgrounds we want to blend, and most of all, our desire to exemplify our love for God to our children, it has been easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged. Noel Piper hits the nail on the head, the truth that our children can't "inherit" Christ from us but that the traditions we pass on can point them to a true knowledge of him. Instead of empty habits, we want to be intentional about our everyday and "especially" traditions, teaching our kids what we believe and why. Thank you, Pipers!

A few pages into this book, I started making a mental list of women I want to share it with. The author, Noel Piper, mother of five (four by birth, one by adoption), is the wife of John Piper, renowned pastor, theologian and author. (She is not a pastor herself, as another reviewer has written.) Bits and pieces of her husband's writings add to the book, which is filled with practical suggestions based on the foundation of the Word. I highly recommend this for all women, but especially for newlyweds or those just starting to establish family traditions. To quote Noel, "How much more of God there is to find when we are on the lookout, when we shape our 'everyday' and 'especially' around him. God will show himself in special and new ways when we celebrate him. He will use our celebrations, our traditions, to stoke our heart's fire for him."

An incredibly insightful book filled with godly-wisdom. I'm greatful for having such sound advice on how to establish daily traditions and "especially" traditions as my husband and i begin our family. Noel does an incredible job at looking at how traditions can be used to point our children and our childrens children towards a passionate life of in pursuit of God. This is going up there with Gary Thomas' "Sacred Marriage" as my recomended reading for newly weds looking to start off their family and marriage with solid Biblical principles as their foundation. Thank you Noel.

About all I can do is echo the earlier reviewers... Noel Piper gives amazingly wonderful thought to why we do thing we do, and how important it is to consciously bring God into our daily routine and traditions. I can see she's done it in her family, and her suggestions are wonderful starting points for creating your own traditions. I, too, have been giving this to all my friends as they start their new families.

Everyone has their own family traditions that make the holiday what it is -- molded jello for birthdays, sugar cereal on Christmas morning, caramel rolls at Thanksgiving, Easter cake after church. It is often after having their first child that young couples begin to think hard about establishing traditions for their nuclear family. Young parents want to give their children the same joyful experiences they had (or missed out on), but it can be challenging to distinguish between sentimental memories and truly meaningful celebrations.

Noel Piper (wife of John Piper) provides an outstanding tool for making these crucial distinctions in her well-written, practical book. In it she gives attention to different ritual ways of doing life together, from everyday prayers and habits to the "big" observances of birthdays, Christmas and Easter. Rather than prescribing a list of do's and don't's, Piper lays out a clear principle of glorifying God through our everyday and special traditions, then goes on to explain how this principle can apply to how we observe daily meals, goodnight rituals, birthdays, adoption days, and other special days.

Her writing is readable, personable and warm, but not chatty. She gives her family's traditions as an example, encouraging other parents to prayerfully consider the unique way God is calling them to worship Him through their traditions. This bok is indispensable for helping couples or individuals think through how to practically order their days and years around celebrating God.

For anyone who has read or listened to anything by John Piper, this book answers the question,"What does such a God-centered perspective look like . . . in a family?" The driving statement of the book is this: "Traditions are a vital way of displaying our greatest treasure, of showing what--Who--is most important to us."

One of the basic principles that challenges parents is that "all of us are training our children both intentionally and unintentionally" and that "God wants us to remember to see him in the most mundane parts of our lives." That second statement leads to the book's treatment of both "everyday" and "especially" traditions. (This is not just about Christmas, Easter, and other special times!)

While some of her specific ideas may seem borrowed from various religious systems (such as advent candles), the ideas can spur the imagination and creativity of those wanting to raise their families in a God-centered home. (One big negative, in my opinion, is that her "Noel calendar" is not currently available through desiringgod.org. It is supposed to return for either Christmas 2009 or 2010.)

This is not about "shoving religion down kids' throats" but about giving them a sense of belonging as part of a family that finds its meaning in Christ. It is a beautiful outgrowth of Noel's husband's God-centered theology, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves God and desires to raise children who love God even more.

I truly enjoyed this book. Noel Piper has filled this book with her family's God-centered traditions. She had given plenty of ideas on how to do the same in any family. I'm keeping it handy so I can grab it anytime for some inspiration on making our family less self-centered and more God-centered.

This book is so well written and has so many great ideas and thoughts about traditions in our family lives. It has sent me on a journey this past year to make traditions in our daily lives. She talks about why traditions in our families are important, what they are and some examples from her family's traditions. I highly recommend this book!

A few pages into this book, I started making a mental list of women I want to share it with. The author, Noel Piper, mother of five (four by birth, one by adoption), is the wife of John Piper, renowned pastor, theologian and author. (She is not a pastor herself, as another reviewer has written.) Bits and pieces of her husband's writings add to the book, which is filled with practical suggestions based on the foundation of the Word. I highly recommend this for all women, but especially for newlyweds or those just starting to establish family traditions. To quote Noel, "How much more of God there is to find when we are on the lookout, when we shape our 'everyday' and 'especially' around him. God will show himself in special and new ways when we celebrate him. He will use our celebrations, our traditions, to stoke our heart's fire for him."