Monday, August 2, 2010
Birthdays...to do or not to do?
So I've been thinking lots and lots about birthdays this year...wondering about the history of them. I can't find any positive mention of them in Scripture...just a few very negative mentions of birthdays where those in leadership had people killed in honor of their birthdays .... check out this link about birthdays and tell me what you think? I don't think we'll be going nuts on birthdays anymore, but we will still certainly honor the birthday person on their day....just not with gifts or cake and candles!!
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11 comments:
Hi Lori-Dawn,
I have never been one to go over the top with birthday celebrations in our home. It usually involes family gathering, kids playing and some cake and gifts. I only make cake for birthdays so that is something pretty special around here.
So what are your thoughts on how you will set aside the day in honor of the birthday person? I have heard of families who gather for a meal and the elders in the family say blessings over the child. I always thought that was kind of neat.
Pam
You always provoke some thoughts in me. My dh hates it! lol. Very interesting article (I only skimmed it).
I love what we HAVE been doing for birthdays, which is a family celebration, where the person we are honoring gets to pick the menu for supper. And I'd love to have the older family members say some blessings over the birthday person. I totally love that idea Pam!! Blessings are very powerful and mean a lot. Those two things are the biggest things we want to keep up or start doing. I need to search for other ways to bless the birthday person as well. I want it to be God-honoring though, so it may take some good research. lol
We've not 'celebrated' birthdays for several years now... dig a little deeper and you'll find the roots of birthdays. The Scriptures give a big clue. Just check out who was celebrating then take it from there.
We give Yahweh praise for another year and pray for his grace for the next. That's about it for us.
So birthdays for our girls are just another day... we laugh about it "do you feel any older?" LOL the answer is "no".
This year my youngest turned 10, this was a bigger for her she was leaving the land of one digit forever...lol now she'll be forever a two digit person...lol
I'm enjoying both your blogs, praying for a quick healing with you dh or ds? don't know which broke their shoulder and thumb...ouch...I know a broken shoulder hurts, because I experienced it.
Have a prosperous week unpacking
Shalom
Lori-Dawn, I don't think we need to avoid all things that pagans have done. A lot of what God has commanded Jews and Christians to do have also been done by pagans (animal sacrifice, burning incense, wearing vestments, ritual baths, etc), but the difference is that we do what we do in a redemptive and transformative way. We are here to bless the world. We can bless any day we like and we can make a cake and put candles in it if we do it in a way that honours God - a lit candle representing each year of life is suiting for people Christ called "the light of the world. A cake is good too...it represents the bounty of the harvest but also a transformation...the wheat is ground just like Christ was beaten and broken for us...but it rises, like he did (this is the same with bread). Besides, it's typical to make special food when you celebrate and cake is a special treat. I personally would not worry about offending God with Birthday celebrations. ITA about speaking blessings over the person of honour. We sing "God grant you many years" as opposed to "Happy Birthday" in our tradition and I think it is more meaningful that way.
You are right in that pagans do the same things God commanded us to do, like the sacrifices etc. But how do you reconcile adopting the practices of pagans and saying that we are doing it to honor God instead with
Deut 12:30-32 30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same." 31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.
Is this not in direct violation of what God commanded us?
YahKheena, it was my husband who broke his hand etc...lol
Hi Lori Dawn
I just recently shared this very same link on my blog concerincg chritmas.
In our home grwoing we did very little for birthdays because my dad didn't care for them biengs they had pagan orings. and to this day i not like to do much for birthdays. But my main reason is because i do not see no since to give things to my kids when they have way too much already. But i do give to my kids farily often it seems. I love to give to them when they least expect it and when they do not ask for somthing.
I personlay think that beings birthday is somthing we do for our selves and not to God that it would be ok. But i don't know if thats right thinking or not.
But i do know since birthsday are pagan and God does not like pagan things use to worship Him that he would not be pleased with us celabrating Jesus birthday/christmas. I certainly do not think He would be anyway.
How do you feel about that ?
If you want to check out what i have been posting about chrstmas come visit my blog.
Mae
Yup Mae..we are of one mind in the Christmas department, and the more I think about it...same with birthdays. I like to surprise my kids all throughout the year...instead of fostering a sense of entitlement that birthdays TOTALLY encourage!! I love your blog and even though I don't comment much, I'm reading it!!
I guess my point is that blessing, honoring and celebrating people, life, birth is something that pleases God and just because someone else blesses life in a way that rejects God, doesn't mean I should stop doing something good. What harm are you really doing by putting candles on a cake? Do you really think God despises that? I personally don't care what pagans do with their candles, but I will use candles in my worship of God as his worshipers have done for millenia. :o)
I hear you Jodie. I totally get where you are coming from. I'm just in a place where I'm trying to read Scripture and figure out if it does or does not offend God to do the same things that other religions do and say that it's for HIM instead of whatever pagan god it was originally intended. I think this confusion in the church stems from us not keeping set apart the way Yahweh commanded us to in the first place...we didn't stand firm as the people of God and we allowed paganism to creep in and it's not until now that *I've* been trying to find my way back to unadulterated worship. Does that make any sense? I do hear your frustrations though, and really, it won't be until judgment day, when we find out how much we truly DID offend God!!! That day has me wondering and seeking all the more to please Him according to His Word!
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