Create a Rhythm
How many hours will you spend with your kids this year?
I know, they’ve got school, you’ve got work, and you all have to sleep at some point. But on average, did you know that you will spend around 3000 hours with your kids this year?
Depending on what phase of life you’re in right now, you might be spending a little more or a little less time with your kids. But here’s what I want you to think about, how will you spend that time?
How will you use those 3000 hours this year? And what if you were able to increase the quantity of the quality time you spend with your kids?
Every Family has a Rhythm
How do you do that?
Maybe the best way is to create a rhythm for your family. Every family has a rhythm.
The rhythm of your family is simply the way you arrange your time. But here’s what you might not have thought about, how you arrange the time you have with your kids, your family rhythm, it shapes your family values.
What you do and how you spend your time over time communicates to your kids what’s important.
My Grandmother’s China
I don’t know about you, but at our house we have my grandmother’s fine china. It sits in a cabinet and only rarely gets used. And when I say rarely, we’re talking… maybe once a year.
My guess is that one day when my kids grow up, if I were to ask them if they want us to pass on this china to them, they’ll probably say, “No thanks.” Why? Because it wasn’t a big part of their lives. We only used it once a year if even that much!
For some of us, our faith is kind of like our grandmother’s fine china.
It rarely gets used.
That Bible we have at home rarely gets pulled off the shelf where it sits. And that may be something worth thinking about.
When it comes to your faith, is your faith a part of your normal family rhythm? Is praying together something that only happens before a meal?
Is church a priority for your family? And not just attending church, but belonging to and being a part of a church family?
Do you talk about Jesus at home? Is God a part of your normal family routine?
Or is it strange, unusual, and uncommon for anything faith related to happen at home?
How do we do that?
You may be wondering… how do we even do that? How do we make faith a part of our daily lives?
What if you were able to leverage the routines and rhythms your family already has so that you are able to increase the quantity of the quality time you spend together and communicate the values of your faith that you deeply want to pass on to your children?
These four ideas are taken from: Parenting Beyond Your Capacity by Reggie Joiner & Carey Nieuwhof
We already have these rhythms built into our daily lives.
1// Meal Time:
What if during meal times when you’re eating together you took time to read the Bible together?
2// Drive TIme:
What if when you’re on the road driving to school or to practice or wherever, what if you used that time to talk about what’s happening right now and how God may be working?
3// Bed Time:
What if bed time became a chance to reflect on the day and look forward to the next and pray about how you need God’s help?
4// Morning Time:
What if every morning before the day began you took time to encourage your kids and remind them God is with them and God is for them?
Make the Time Count
Every family has a rhythm. We may believe something is important, but if it’s not a part of the rhythm of our lives our children will perceive that it has little value to us.
When we begin to count the time we have we can begin to think about how we can make the time we have count.
Let’s make the time we have today count with our kids and let’s leverage the rhythm of our daily lives to point our kids to Jesus.
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