More on TRADITIONS

In studying the scriptures we ran across a couple that were very enlightening. Mosiah 26:1-2 “Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generations that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers….concerning the coming of Christ….And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God and their hearts were hardened.”

The feeling we got was that 'traditions are important….but more important is what is behind those traditions'. You’ve heard the scripture in Mark 7:6… “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” and it goes on “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men…rejecting the commandments of God that ye may keep your own traditions…making the word of God of none effective through your tradition…” Also Mosiah 1:5 has similar examples.

Where is safety for our families these days? King Benjamin addresses his people, much of which we can use today in our own homes, being sure that our children understand why we have the religious traditions….and gain a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and the Plan of Happiness. We really love what it says about the people being at the temple in Mosiah 2…”they might go up to the temple to hear the words…pitching their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door there of towards the temple…hearken with your ears, hearts and minds…” To us this shows even more how important the temple is in these latter days…to help keep our families strong and to lead us back to our Heavenly Father through Christ’s teachings.

An example would be having a family tradition of attending church each Sunday….but teaching our children why and the meaning of the Sacrament to remember and follow Christ. Reading the scriptures and prayer each day is important….but why?...and also to liken the scriptures we read to our lives today.