Thank you all for your sweet, encouraging words yesterday. We definitely had a rough day, but as soon as I prayed about it and put my thoughts in writing on my blog, I felt so much better. And your sweet comments made me feel even better.
I’m not abandoning “truth-telling Fridays,” but I feel like I kind of spilled my guts already this week and after yesterday’s big brain dump, I wanted to end the week on something super positive and fun.
At SPOTS this week at my church, our Children’s Minister, Mimi Brookshire, spoke to us about family. Our struggles, our triumphs, our good days and bad days. We talked about discipline and she gave us some recommendations for some great parenting books. I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe that God puts people and ideas in our lives at the right time to remind us to turn to Him when things are tough. And I know that Mimi’s words came at the right time for me after experiencing the day we had yesterday.
Mimi concluded her talk by encouraging us to do fun family activities together such as…
Have family movie nights.
Play games.
Bake a cake and lick the bowl.
Read books out loud with joy.
Laugh until you cry.
Play dress up.
Camp out in your yard and your living room.
Roast marshmallows.
Make homemade pizza and let everyone touch the dough.
Slide down your stairs on a blanket or a cardboard box.
Have tea parties.
Make superman or super girl costumes.
Wash dishes and babies until the bubbles tumble over from the sink.
Paint.
Play play-dough.
Play in the rain and the mud.
Enjoy your family!
Look at your kiddos each day and thank God for them.
Rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.
Hug Often!
Because here’s the reality (Mimi wrote these to fit her family, but I know we could all think of our own “realities” that make things perfectly imperfect)…
“Family is a little bit of heaven on earth. We are a strange group of characters walking through life sharing colds and hairbrushes, desiring one another’s soda ( we didn’t have soda in our house when my kids were growing up so it was huge), hiding video games( he cannot play it, I bought it with my own money), locking each other out of rooms( no girls are allowed…sisters have cooties!), borrowing stuff ( sometimes without asking…most of time without asking), causing pain and kissing to heal the pain all in the same moment, laughing, loving, defending to the death, and working hard to figure out what makes us a family. We don’t choose our family. God chose that for us! Enjoy and cherish your family!”
We don’t choose our family…so true! But we do choose how we respond to them, and there’s joy to be found in that.
That’s a fabulous quote! I love it. So glad to hear that today is better. I am reading a fantastic book right now called The Most Important Place on Earth – it’s about raising kids in a Christian home that is still fun! It’s a really good read if you are interested in another good book. I have not looked at the SPOTS link yet but I hope there are some discipline books on there. It’s time for some new ones around here. Have a great weekend.
Wow what a quote! I cannot imagine my life without my family, even with all it quirks, and faults, and general craziness. Thanks for sharing.
You wrote this for me today. Thank you!
I love, love, love this post. I so appreciate your words and the gentle reminder to stop planning, instructing, and keeping things in order– and embrace the chaos, fun, and JOY of children, families, and life. Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend.
Erin, I’d love to know the books she recommended.
I love this post. Thanks for sharing!
I love this. I love you! What a perfect message!
What a great quote! So true!
Thank you for always sharing such honest and true posts. This one was fantastic – a wonderful reminder! I’m with Courtney, I would love to know the book recommendations. Love you!
love all the family plans!! have a nice weekend!
I so agree with you about no such thing as coincidences. I believe everything happens for a reason and everyone:) Have a great weekend.
I love your blog and your honesty! Just curious…what books did your Children’s Minister suggest?
Those are great family activities! Good reminder that things don’t have to be perfect…example, let everyone touch the pizza dough. 🙂
LOVE this post!!! It inspired me this Saturday morning and now I want to go to all these things…even though it’s just the 2 of us and McGruffy. Even though we don’t have any little ones we can still do these “family” things, right? I mean, we’re a family, we just haven’t grown as large as we plan to in the future. Thanks for this post. Love it! It was perfect!
I SO NEEDED TO HEAR THIS. Thank you Erin…My family and I have been going through some tough times recently, and between this blog post and a message I heard at a church meeting this morning I know God is answering my prayers by pointing my focus in the right direction. Thank you so much, this post was a true blessing in my life today!