Abundant Family Life This Summer
Well, it is difficult to believe that the school year is nearly over. In schools everywhere students are excited, a few are sad, and a few don’t even realize summer vacation is as close as it is! For parents, we all know exactly how many days are left! If you are a mom, you may be excited to have your children home all day, or you may be challenged by the thought. You may have plans already in place, or you may be scrambling to know what to do with them for three months. No matter where you fall, it’s only days away.
Summer is the perfect opportunity to practice what I’ll call “abundant family living.”
Whether you’ll be at work away from the house, or will be at home the entire summer, we can all make it a wonderful time for ourselves and our kids. Try and look at it from the children’s point of view, and even recall the summer months when you were the same age. What were some of your favorite memories? Mine included: camping in the redwoods with my parents and my Uncle Fred and Aunt Irene, visiting my godparents in Long Beach, and if I was lucky, spending a week with my best far-away friend and her family of seven in Los Angeles.
As parents, we have the opportunity to set in place three key aspects of this summer vacation: the attitude, the activities, and the amount of time.
As for the attitude in the home, we parents set the tone for our children as soon as they are awake. Do we greet them cheerfully and expect them to do the same? Do we immediately remind them of God’s love and our love for them with physical touch and kind words? Do we even speak to them with a tone of voice that encourages them to respond lovingly and respectfully?
These are hard questions. We all fail, but let’s take the challenge this summer to be intentional in modeling positive attitudes for our kids.
Also, we are the ones who can help them keep busy with meaningful activities. I think it’s a good idea to have a variety of options already pre-thought for when they don’t seem to know what to do. They are children, and they need our guidance, even when it comes to their free time choices. Sometimes they are not as able to come up with their own good options, so it’s on us to help them recognize what those options might be.
Amount of time…this is a very personal judgment within each family. But, it is our job as parents to put limits on all our kid’s activities: work, play, sleep, television, telephone, electronics, friends, etc. We are the ones that know best, and know them best!
My point is this: The kind of summer experience our children and we will have is largely upon us.
It really doesn’t have to do with whether they play in the yard, visit with family, or go to Disneyland. It’s more about the tenor in the home. Ask God for direction in all these decisions, and give God the credit when you talk to the kids about them. Make sure they know that you depend on Him and they can, also.
Next time I’ll lay out a strategy I used to use with our daughter to kick-start the summer with intentionality. In the mean time, be praying about how you can make positive changes in your household in the areas of attitude, activities, and amount time. It’s never too late to take the next best step!
GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!
