Finding Your Rhythm
As parents of young children, Ginny and I have often found ourselves in a moment of clarity at the kitchen table, vowing to make more time to do spiritual things as a family. Of course, we bring our kids to church, and we pray at meals, and we say prayers before going to sleep, but we want to do more! We make a grand plan and have the best intentions, but all too often we fail. Normally I would say the reason we fail is because we are too busy or too tired or there just isn’t enough time in the day. But if I really examine my life, I find time for plenty of other things that are drastically less important than the spiritual well-being of my children. I’m sure many of you have had the same discussions, failures, and frustrations, so what should we do? How do we make the time to give our children what they need to learn how to love God, and love others?
The first problem is the flawed logic in the phrase “make more time”. Time is finite, our days are numbered, and it is impossible to add even a second to the time God has already allotted. We must get away from the belief that if we want it bad enough, and plan perfectly, that more time will magically appear, and we can do all the things we need to do. This means that we must be intentional with the time that we have, and use the moments in our unique family rhythm, to teach our children to love God, and love others.
Every family has a different rhythm, some are early risers, others stay up late, Some play outside together, some play videogames, some are soft-spoken, and others are loud, and not one family’s rhythm is the same as the next, but they all have a few similarities. No matter what your rhythm is, at some point every family relaxes at home together, commutes together, wakes up, and goes to bed. These seem like simple obvious things, but the Bible instructs us to capture these moments, and use them to the glory of God. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 gives us a picture of what this looks like;
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We don’t need more time in order to follow the wisdom in these verses, we simply need to be more intentional with the time we have. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the Parent Cue App, I encourage you to do so, It has tools that will connect families on a spiritual level when we are relaxing together at home, driving in the car, during our morning routine, or before bed at night. These tools are made to integrate into any family rhythm, and with minor preparation you can lead your family into deeper discussions and a deeper understanding of God’s word.
Here is the link if you need it: https://theparentcue.org/app/