Traditions

Like the fiddler on the roof, we all have our traditions.
Some traditions are joyful and exciting
The smell of gingerbread baking at Christmas.
Packages strode underneath the Christmas tree.
Dyeing Easter eggs bright colors and hiding them all around.
Cake covered with candles and ice cream for birthdays.
Something borrowed something blue.
Hitting the stores for the big sale days.
Big yellow buses starting their first running in September back to school.

Some traditions are minor and a nuance.
The return lines after the holidays.
Your favorite team is always loosing.
Politicians talking too long and taxes keep going up.
Someone is always beating you to the last piece of cake.
Vacations are never being long enough or just as planned.
There is never enough time to do it all in just one summer.
The flat tire that always comes when you are busy.
The dollars that never make it to the end of the month.

Some traditions however just should not be.
Sing songs of praise while looking like you ate a lemon.
Speaking blessing and curses with the same lips.
Showing up for church on Sunday, but never meeting God
And leaving as dry and lifeless as when you came in.
Knowing what your brother did wrong, but not yourself.
Quenching the Spirit, for He might not kept our time schedule
Or act in a way that we deem unbecoming.
Listening to the Word, but never hearing, never responding.
Watching the clock, and marking off your weekly time as done
While never opening the word or praying between times.
Some traditions need broken for they do not serve us.

Kathy Barnes
Copyright 5-23-09