God knows that we will do the things that we have been taught. As a child, I learned all about the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy, goblins, jack-o-lanterns, Cupid, Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, etc. I was not brought up in any kind of a demonic environment, but the information I gathered in these festivals did not necessarily help me focus my attention on God and His goodness. What are we teaching and modeling for our children? What activities help us focus our mind on the things of God?

Traditions can be very good things. If we are going to participate in traditions, let us pick them on purpose. Let's quit including the bad traditions in our celebrations just because they are familiar. Traditions for tradition’s sake can become empty and burdensome. Traditions without deep significance are distractions. Meaningful biblical traditions are powerful and life transforming. Yet, God despises even Biblical observances that are not done from the heart (Amos 5:21-23). What one person would call a rich tradition another might call an empty activity. So the question remains, what traditions are we going to practice?

Our goal at Shepherd's Heart Ministries is to faithfully walk in our calling and not get pulled aside with activities that draw our attention away from our Lord. For instance, we do not participate in traditional "Easter" activities which includes eggs and rabbits because these do not have any spiritual significance, but are in fact, part of the pagan practices surrounding Ishtar, the Babylonian fertility goddess. However, we do recognize that season of the year our Lord was crucified, buried, and resurrected! That we do celebrate! There is no spiritual significance in Christmas trees. Therefore we do not erect one. But we do take time to focus on the birth of our Lord, which was heralded by the angelic hosts!

When we think about what we are going to practice, we must recognize that we will never agree with everyone. We are all being refined by the Master and we are all at different levels of knowledge in our walk with the Lord. Our concerns are two-fold. One, that we do not offend God by practicing paganism. And, two, we do not cause our brother who has a weak conscience, to falter. Paul could eat meat that was part of a pagan sacrifice, but would not if someone with a weaker conscience would be offended by it (Romans 14:14-23, 1 Corinthians 8).