Treasuring God in Our Traditions

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!

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.

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."