Resources/Articles
Having Fun With Your Family
Spring has arrived. School is close to being out for the summer. Vacations are being planned. Fun with the family is on the horizon. If you close your eyes, you could think back to the days when you were a child. The springs, summers, falls, and winters each had their “specialness”. The fun times were not always designated to the summer. Certain places and activities you did together as a family are forever etched in your mind. “Those were fun times,” we might say. If you ask your children to rate your family on a scale from one to ten, with ten being excellent, where would they rate your family on the “Fun Scale”?
There are quite a number of things that confront a family and hinder the FUN a family should enjoy and anticipate. One of the greatest enemies is HURRY. Too much of our life is lived “fast”. Our society provides us “fast” food, “fast” forward, “fast” lane, and “fast” breaks. What does the scripture say about getting in a hurry? James 4:13-16 says you need to consider God in the equation of life. Matthew 6:25-33 says you cannot add any extra time to what you are already given. No need to be anxious about tomorrow. The writer of Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Those words are needed in every family that lives to “Hurry Up”. Are you in a family that has heard the words, “Where are we going now?” or “What is a vacation?” Slow down and enjoy your “fun time”.
PREOCCUPATION will also ruin fun with a family. You only have one life, one family, one God, and you are a parent only one time. What occupation, garden, project, or hobby is worth more than a morning or hour of relaxing with your mate and your children?
Another enemy of family fun is NOT KEEPING YOUR WORD. Have you made promises, and then broken them? How many excuses are held to your account because you failed to “come through” with what you said you would do for and with your family? Commitment to your word is something that builds trust in your family relationship. It is a terrible letdown to tell a child, “I will” but then have to say, “I can’t.” There are understandable circumstances that may hinder what you promised, but how often have you haphazardly said you would, but knew you could not? “Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin” (Ecclesiastes 5:5).
Thing on these things…
