Family Time

Gone are the days where families eat dinner together. Gone are the days where families actually spend time with one another and stay together. In this social media generation family time is considered sitting together watching a show, or worse all being at home watching TVs in their own rooms separately. Now even the families that may eat together do so whilst on their phones texting and surfing the net.  It's really sad and unfortunate.

I guess I am old school but family is very important to me. I grew up very unstable moving around a lot and living between my moms house and my Dads. I experienced a variety of different family environments, but the one that brings me the best memories and security were when I lived with my dad and step mom. We would eat dinner every night together. Every weekend we went on a family outing and would even sometimes play games together. Now my parents weren't saved, so we had much more time than my 'pastoring' family. I have noticed as a busy christian is can be increasingly hard to hold true to those family traditions, but have recently made special effort to rekindle that family time in the home. 

At the end of the day, people will leave you but your family will be by your side forever. So don't neglect your family in the name of ministry or hanging out with friends.  Those are good things but your family life is the foundation to who you are. Now this may not apply to single folks though I do encourage you to build good memories with your family. But this post is directed more at moms and wives who have the influence to initiate family time in their own homes.

Some practices that we have in my home

Breakfast together-this year started with me cooking breakfast for my family every day, but I noticed I would just make it and everyone would eat as they came down stairs... So we never really ate together. Since we are all home and we all do eat breakfast I started  setting the table for breakfast together. We all sit down, pray and eat.  It may only be for 5 minutes but it gives our kids a sense of security and allows us to all connect before our day starts. Maybe it means you wakeup earlier but I encourage you to make it happen if you can.

Something to do Box- I have a little box I made with activities in it that I can do with my girls. We  try and use it once a week. It forces me to stop cleaning, cooking and all the other stuff I do and actually play with my kids.

The Hubby Hover-  usually in the afternoon or evening, I will just sit next to my husband while he does his work or is on the computer. I just make myself sit and be close with him for a half hour or so. Often the kids usually end up with us too and voila the family is together.  I ended up falling sleep on his shoulder the other afternoon. Haha!

Dinner time early: Our life doesn't allow for 6pm dinners. So we have dinner right after school when my oldest gets home from school. This may not be feasible for you, but if there is a other time you are all home for dinner, why not just change the time of dinner?? Works for us!

Every family is different and unique but I can't express how important it is to make that time as a family. Regardless if you are pastoring a church or not.    As the lady of the house you have the ability to mold and shape your family and home environment.   You would be surprised how much your family will enjoy and appreciate the extra effort you put into keeping everyone together!Plus it will pay off in the long run!