Creating a Summer Rhythm

by Rhett Smith

Striking a balance between being super busy and doing nothing over the summer can often be difficult for families. Hopefully in the process of communicating expectations for the family a good rhythm can unfold between busyness and rest.

Lots of kids, as well as parents, come to the end of the school year completely exhausted. Sometimes a period is needed for families to rest and rejuvenate before launching fully into busy summer mode. But the reality of family life today is often that both parents are working, and therefore kids need to move quickly from school into summer activities.

Depending on your family, you may have characteristics that help you go about finding the right rhythm. But here are a few suggestions that I have found to be helpful:

Create “White Space” – As you look at your summer calendar, make sure there are days on the calendar where there is nothing planned. There should be “white space” on those days. In our busy world, it’s important to have days where kids and parents don’t have something to do.  These days allow families to be spontaneous and creative in the absence of planned activity.  I recommending purchasing a large white board calendar if you don’t have one, or drawing a calendar on a white board. Capture

Sabbath: A Day of Being, Having and Doing Enough

What if the quiet voices that tell us that we have done what we could, given what we were able, tried our best - what if this inner knowing has been silenced?  If we move too fast we ignore the signals we receive from our bone-weary souls, day by day, moment by moment, voices that tell us, shout at us, trying to get us to listen: Our house is already on fire.

Nowhere in scripture do we find texts that insist God wants us to be miserable, overwhelmed, bone-weary, exhausted or discouraged.  But there are countless verses about having a life abundantly well rested, well nourished, along with tidings of great joy; this is the day the lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it; Come to me all who toil and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Remember the Sabbath.  Remember who you are, remember that being alive is a gift.  Listen to the breeze

rustle the leaves of the trees, speak a word of kindness to someone in need of hearing it, place your hand on your child, your beloved, and offer them your blessing, be still, be quiet, listen.  God is offering us the most elegant, magnificent present...we only have to stop.  

Click to read the full article by The Rev. Wayne Muller

Why Passing on the Faith Isn't Good Enough?

What if, instead of passing on the faith, we encouraged our children to play with the faith that God has given to them in order to love it into greater vitality?

Every year around this time, my family and I head to the fall fair in the village where my father grew up. It's become a family tradition in the past few years, and every year my family and I take a look at the list of competitions to see what we might want to enter—baking, hand-made cards, and other handicrafts. A few years ago, as we were looking at the different categories, we came across the "Grandma's Linen Closet" category and I started thinking about a small white box tucked inside my bedroom closet. In it are three dresser scarves that my grandmother lovingly stitched many years ago. Before she died, she gave the dresser scarves to my parents, who passed them on to my wife and me when we got married. I spent more time than I probably should have thinking about whether or not to enter these scarves in the fair, but in the end I decided not to enter them because I was worried that someone would spill ice cream on them or that they'd get torn on a sharp object as they were being put up and taken down for display. So they remained in that box, safe from ice cream and hidden nails.

When I think about passing on the faith, I'm reminded of these dresser scarves that were passed down through the generations of my family. Link to full article

Praying With and For Your Children

A Blessing This Week

Hope everyone is having a terrific week!

Prayer has really been on my mind this week after our meeting - no surprise.  I thought all day Sunday about blessing my children, after our discussion.  My insecurities were taking control as I imagined the response I'd get trying to actually "bless" them - eye rolling or literally running away!

As often happens with me, God dropped an opportunity right into my lap Sunday evening with one of the boys, so I mustered my bravery and jumped on it.  I got there, despite my lack of nerve, and it went very well.  I'll be looking for more ways to offer blessings that I am comfortable with and that seem to suit the moment, rather than trying to force the issue.

So I want to challenge you all to give it a try if you haven't already.  Don't worry about what you say or how is goes - just take advantage of an opportunity that presents itself.  Here are some tips from a website called The Blessing.  I'm not sure their entire program is for me, but these guidelines were helpful.

The blessing is a life-changing gift of unconditional love and acceptance passed down from one generation to the next. Through the blessing, children (and adults) find out what it means to be highly valued and loved by someone else using five specific actions first laid out in the Bible:

• Meaningful touch
• A Spoken Message
• Attaching High Value
• Picturing a Special Future
• An Active Commitment

We're interested to know how you all are doing - please let us know!

Praying With Children

by Troy Cady

There are so many ways to pray. Why not take some time this week to talk about and model prayer with children? Here are 10 ways you could experiment with them.

1. Pray by singing.

2. Pray simply.

3. Pray short, memorized phrases.  

4. Pray with a visual focus.

5. Pray through art.

7. Go on a prayer walk.

8. Breathe.

9. Pray in silence.

10. Pray a “pretend prayer”

The main thing is: have fun and experiment. Find how your child best connects with God and encourage that any way you can. Read the full article for more information.

Posted by Mary Cay Kollmansperger, October 2, 2013