Challenge...

Just a thought for your weekend on doing things together as a family...I read this post at (In)Courage yesterday and it validated so many thoughts I have on the importance of eating together as a family but it also challenged me to always fight for family time. Growing up, E, J & I knew the importance of family time. Our parents put a major emphasis on our family doing things together, going to church together and not taking multiple cars, eating meals together, saturday work days together, traveling together, watching movies together, etc. It is one of those things that I appreciate so much from my parents...its contrary to our world to do things together as a family, everyone is going in a 1000 different directions and its easier to grab a fast food meal as you go to your next event, pass each other in the hallway for a quick hello, wave to each other as you come and go, and never actually have a meaningful conversation with your family members or even spend time in their presence for more than 10 minutes at a time. Fighting for family time is going against our culture, it takes effort and planning to make this happen...its an art to try and have dinner ready when hubby gets home from work with a 10 week old and a 2 year old, it would be easier to feed the kids and put them to bed, so hubby and I could eat alone, it would be easier to put the kids to bed at 7 rather than have them eat later so we could all sit down together, it would be easier to skip baths, reading time, evening family walks, visits to the pool before dinner and trips to TCBY after dinner where even the dog comes...If we took the easy way out, we would never be together as a family, Dad would never have his time with the kids, memories wouldn't be created and we would simply be coexisting instead of sharing in this life together!

So here's a challenge, no matter where you are in life, with kids or without, make time to be together, go through life together and do the simple things that seem so unimportant, but really make a huge impact on your life...Fight for your family!

-B