Running the Race: One Thousand Gifts (continued)

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth" (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

This year, we celebrated New Year's around the world!

Although, I do not believe in participating in rituals or traditions that supposedly ward off evil spirits, or bring good luck, it was fun to learn about the different traditions around the world.

Learning about other traditions, caused me to reflect on our own traditions. My favourite tradition when researching how other countries celebrate New Years was Nigeria as they participate in intense prayer. Some traditions are centuries old. What traditions are we passing on to our children? Does it include intense prayer? How different would our lives look like if we passed on that tradition? Rather than believing in activities that bring good luck or good fortune, and warding off evil spirits, what about trusting in God and thanking him for all of the blessings that we have! What about praying that we and our homes would be filled with the Holy Spirit? Those are the traditions that I hope and pray we will be able to pass on to our children, and their children, and their children, etc.

In addition to the fun of popping a balloon every hour to celebrate a different country, we also enjoyed the tradition of attending church by ending and starting the New Year in the presence of the Lord, and in communal worship.

Our fun celebrations of New Year's around the world included some things such as:

Ethiopia: wearing new clothes

Filipino countries: wearing polka dots

Turkey: playing Bingo (rather than the lottery)

Denmark: jumping from chairs "into" the New Year

Spain: a mouthful of 12 grapes -1 for each chime of the clock before midnight (Paul won the grape eating contest)

Philippine: making lots of noise, such as banging pots and pans. Our pots and pans took a bit of a beating, but Brad the drummer boy, enjoyed making "music"!

China (and many other countries around the world): fireworks

We had a fun night ringing in the New Year and learning about other countries around the world. We look forward with much anticipation to the year 2016 to see what God has in store for us! I pray that we will be able to trust Him and give glory to Him in all that we do!

Continuing to give thanks...
-the tradition of celebrating the New Year with my sister and her family
-the tradition of ringing in the New Year worshiping with fellow believers
-the many, many blessings that God has given us this past year!