Traditions

What are some of the traditions you have with your sports team or family?

There’s an old fable about a family that had ham for dinner each Christmas. As one of the family members was preparing the ham, a cousin asked why both ends were cut off.
“That is how we always prepare our ham. Go ask my mom, and she can explain why.”

Mom responded, “I don't know. My mom always did it this way. It’s our family tradition.”

Grandmother was sitting in the next room and was asked to explain.
“When your father and I married, we didn't have much money. Someone gave us a small cooking pot. The ham wouldn't fit unless we cut off the ends!”

Some traditions have a practical beginning but are no longer relevant, as shown in this ham story.

It has been widely accepted that only adults can competently teach sport and life skills to early teens. It was a tradition. Then someone suggested that mature teens could do the coaching as part of a leadership development plan. Some were skeptical.

“Teens aren't old enough to coach.”
However, several innovators started a program to develop teens as coaches, and it was a huge success in leadership development. Now it is widely used.

New young leaders who ask the "why" questions are great at challenging tradition. If the typical answer is, "We don't do it that way," they will respond with, “Why?”

During sports movement conferences, senior leaders or gifted pastors traditionally presented the morning devotionals. Someone asked, "Why don't we have young leaders from different cultures deliver each day's devotional?"

Some were unsure. Now, at hundreds of conferences, capable young leaders present the devotions.

Scripture to Ponder:
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 —"But test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil."

Key Lesson:
Many traditions are worth continuing because they make biblical and cultural sense. However, there are other traditions that don’t make sense or were never meant to be continued.