One Practical Parenting Nudge
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 4, NIV
This has become one of my favorite verses and I see a theme. I remember my mom praying this consistently and I remember my grandma praying this consistently . . . I assume that trend goes even farther back than I could possibly know. Maybe you need a reminder today that your prayers matter. My parents had to wait decades for this Scripture to become real for them, but they rejoiced the day it was true!
When I think of my main hope as a parent, it’s that our family circle will eternally be unbroken and we will rejoice together in Heaven, forevermore. Is that yours too?
A question Mark and I posed to one another on a date night years ago led to a lively conversation. We asked each other, “Looking back now as an adult, what do you see having the most spiritual significance on you as you were growing up?” Basically, we wanted to discuss what drew us to Christ and then part two of the conversation was to plan how we could incorporate these ideas into our own parenting of our four daughters.
We both agreed that any leadership roles we were given from an early age developed us quickly. My husband, Mark, is quite athletic. In High School, he was straddling the line between investing in sports friends and church friends. There isn’t always a gap between those two categories of friends, but for Mark, the guys were drastically different in each group. The sports friends were not following Jesus, but his best friends from church were indeed walking in the truth.
Mercifully, the Lord drew Mark into more opportunities for church leadership with his two closest friends, Chris and Adam, and it changed the trajectory of his life. He slowly drifted away from the sports friends and instead joined the praise and worship band with his church buddies. His role was the Band Manager and he jokes that they would be running sound checks and the band on stage would ask him, “Hey Mark, can you turn down this knob for the sound? No . . . not that one . . . no, the other one . . . I’ll just come back and do it.” Maybe sound engineering wasn’t his sweet spot, but he loved any role where he could travel with his friends and share the gospel with young people. He thrived when given these leadership roles.
To this day, Mark still considers Chris and Adam to be his best guy friends and I’m so delighted God has blessed these friendships in more ways than we could have ever asked or imagined. An added bonus is that their wives are some of my favorite women to spend time with, so I get to reap the blessings . . . and now we all have children who get to spend time together and they are blessed as well! We don’t let the distance separate us, and you can read more about that in Family Sleepovers. It’s incredible to think that certain choices made over 25 years ago are impacting all three of our families.I see this legacy continuing on into the future.
I share this story to remind you not only that your prayers matter, but your choices as parents matter! Who your kids spend time with matters. Their godly friendships may become blessings to unborn children you haven’t even met yet!
Therefore, it’s important to consider how we are cultivating spiritual matters in our kids’ lives and asking purposeful questions.
That question we asked each other on date night also included “camps” as part of the answer. Mark and I both got to experience time away at church camps and these investments in short weekends reaped eternal rewards. Our take-away was to encourage our own daughters to attend church camp. It is an investment financially and with time, but it reminds me how quick we are to spend money on things that are temporary, such as sports camps or sporting seasons, but we are resistant to spend money on things that are forever, such as investing in spiritual matters.
To get our kids ready for their own camp experience, we decided to first attend a Family Camp. From the moment we pulled into camp and all the college students were cheering and welcoming us, we were hooked! Our daughters grew spiritually, we grew spiritually, we delighted in time with like-minded friends, and we tried things together as a family that we had never done before such as ziplining, doing a banana boat, jumping off the tall platform into the lake, and fishing. We walked away refreshed, rather than drained, which is pretty rare as a parent coming home from a family vacation with young children.
One friend told us they have been attending family camp for years. He happens to be a pastor and he said this was the single best decision he had ever made as the spiritual leader in their home. Wow! I love it when parents sum up their best advice and pass it along.
So I want to invite you to give Family Camp a try as well! There are plenty of good ones available and some fill up fast, so don’t delay: research today! My highest recommendation goes to WinShape Family Camps and I can’t wait to hear what you think of this experience! Please write to me and let me know if you give it a try. I pray it changes your life for the better in more ways than you could ever conceive.
I hope you begin your own practical chats for intentional living by asking your spouse today, “Looking back now as an adult, what do you see having the most spiritual significance on you as you were growing up?” And then I hope you take it one step further and put it into action.
I envision us all sharing these stories as we hang out in Heaven together and rejoice over the truth of 3 John 4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (NIV) Amen!
I’m praying for you now, and God is immediately available to help!
Blessings to you and yours,
Laura
About The Savvy Sauce
Practical chats for intentional living
A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.
They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!
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