You better not!

Today I am washing a load of clothes, possibly two! While any other day of the year that might seem like no big deal, it is New Year's Day and according to my mother washing clothes today is something you do NOT do! She's probably rolling over in her grave or fussing at me from heaven right now. But what ya gonna do? They were dirty and part of one of those loads contains a uniform that will be worn today and needed again tomorrow! Washing had to be done.

You see, according to my mom, you will cry as many tears during that year as you use water to wash clothes on New Year's Day. I'm pretty sure she was just trying to not have to wash clothes at least one day out of the year, but I've decided that if she was right, perhaps the tears I cry will simply be tears of joy. 

I seem to have a lot of superstitions that rule my life. Some were passed down, like having to eat black eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's Day, and some I have brought on myself...like my totally un-natural aversion to the number 6, but that is another story. 

Life is filled with a lot of different things passed down from one generation to the next. Some are really good - like faith. I am watching War Room today because one of the things I want to pass down to my children is true faith. Some other things are just...

Perhaps you have heard the story of the woman who cooked roast just the way her mother had done. She began by cutting off both ends, just like mama had done. One day her mother was there watching her prepare the meal and she happened to ask why her daughter was doing that. "Why, because it's the way YOU always did it." "Darlin," her mother replied, "that was because I didn't have a roasting pan big enough to fit it all in!" Sometimes we do things because we really don't understand at all.

Back to washing clothes. If I go by the superstition, I will either have to deal with dirty clothes or stay up past midnight to deal with things. Sometimes you've just got to do what needs to be done, no matter what tradition says. Maybe it's time to let go and just do what needs to be done, and I'm not just talking about laundry!

How about it? What "crazy" traditions do you have that have been passed down in YOUR family? Take time to comment...don't leave me out here with my crazy ideas all by myself!

Colossians 2:8-10The Message (MSG)

8-10 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.