| School’s out for the summer! This might feel like a sigh of relief, or perhaps a rocky transition to a different routine. Know that I’m praying for you as you make the transition! Give yourselves and your kids a lot of grace! Much has been written about the fact that ~66% of 18-22-year-olds walk away from their faith (at least temporarily–I firmly believe that God is present in our journey for a lifetime!) While I don’t want this statistic to cause fear–God is bigger than statistics–I do believe that it’s worth noting that many of the young people who continue to have a vibrant relationship with Jesus tend to have 5 things in common. Over the next 5 weeks, as your schedules shift this summer and as you consider your routines for next year, I want to highlight these habits of resilient disciples. Prayerfully consider how you might incorporate them in your families! Habit 1: The 34% of youth who stayed connected to Christ ate dinner together as a family 5 out of 7 nights/week. I know this is challenging. Acknowledgement #1: Schedules often make this difficult. You might need to make some tough choices to make this happen–or at least, some creative choices to still allow family time while working around other commitments. But I would encourage you to “begin with the end in mind”. If you desire for your kids to be lifelong followers of Christ, then build your schedule with that as the priority–it’s worth it! Acknowledgment #2: it’s not the food that makes these dinners significant–it’s the opportunity to connect with one another and God over a meal, and sometimes that can feel tricky. There are lots of resources to help, but let me highlight one: “What’s for Dinner” magazine. Here’s a description from their website: “The beauty of What’s for Dinner? lies in its simplicity. Just like preparing a meal from scratch can be time-consuming and overwhelming, some resources for nurturing our children’s faith require extensive planning and preparation. But with this magazine, there’s no need for advance prep. It’s designed to make things easier for parents and caregivers who want to incorporate faith-based conversations and activities into their daily lives.” |
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| If you use this or another resource you love to help create meaningful opportunities for discipleship, let me know! Let’s build our resource library! What’s one concrete step you can take to have more meals together as a family this summer? |
