The left has taught us a few things in the past few years.
One is that holidays and months are important and effective tools for teaching one’s beliefs.
For example, the left has promoted June very hard as “pride month.”
Then they have pushed to start Juneteenth as a holiday under the guise of celebrating the end of slavery. But it has really been an opportunity to belittle America, which leftist love to do.
During the protests last year, statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses Grant, and even Abraham Lincoln were toppled, vandalized or destroyed.
The reason is because the left understands that monuments and holidays matter. We use them as an opportunity to teach values to our children or to others.
I made the mistake in the past of not giving enough thought to holidays. I assumed that Americans were shallow and were more interested merely in commercialism and decorating. Oct. 31 meant decorating something in a creepy way, Christmas meant lots of festive lights, and Easter meant chocolate eggs.
I thought this way when we were living in the age of relativism and assumed that Americans were largely hedonists who didn’t think much about values.
But it turns out that people DO want to have values and stand for something they believe matters.
Columnist David French wrote last year that for years he had been praying for a revival in America. Last summer, there was a “revival” in our country. It just wasn’t the type of revival we think of when we think of the Puritans, John Edwards, or perhaps even Billy Graham.
In other words, it wasn’t a revival centered around Christ, His resurrection, and our need for a personal Savior.
I have to admit, I am impressed with the left’s use of the holidays and time periods to promote their agenda. And I am even more impressed that they had the gumption to move forward with their ideology even when public opinion wasn’t initially in their favor. They pressed on.
Jesus says in Luke 16:8b “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”
It’s true. They may be wrong about what they believe, but they are shrewd. Or perhaps they are following someone who is shrewd.
Jesus used Jewish holidays as a backdrop for much of His teaching. For example, Jesus instituted the Last Supper on Passover. It was ultimately God who instituted Passover to commemorate the time period in which the Israelites left Egypt.
The Israelites used 12 stones as a memorial to when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. The stones were used specifically as an opportunity to answer when children asked what they were intended for.
“Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
Joshua 4:5b-7
God knew that humans often need reminders.
C.S. Lewis once wrote: ““Most people don’t need to be taught, they need only to be reminded.”
The past several months have been a reminder to me to take advantage of the holidays as an opportunity to teach values and beliefs.
Remember that people are not shallow. People are not relativists at heart. They have their own fundamentals of the faith.
Let us fight for truth. Holidays are a great tool to use when teaching about truth and values.
Spreadsheets and Overalls 