Summer is coming. Around here the change of season is obvious due to the pleasant weather slowly being overtaken by the heaviness of heat and humidity. Spring Break is in the rearview mirror and the school year closing activities are upon us.
If your home is in a similar life stage as ours then you already have a few things on the calendar for the coming summer. There may be a sports camp or some other activity for the kids which required registration months in advance. Possibly in your home there is a week during the summer when you always travel to see family or go to a family vacation spot.
Do your summer plans include intentional relational time with your family?
I am sure that all of these opportunities are ones that your family looks forward to and enjoys greatly. These times are great and needed when balanced with other important goals and priorities.
When we really stop and evaluate we are all aware that nearly all of these plans, although very fun, offer little relational time with our families. The great vacations we plan are usually full of exhausting agendas which give us the feeling of accomplishment as we have conquered an amusement park or experienced a destination to the fullest.
I also believe the sports and activities camps are great opportunities for our children. They provide great developmental value. That being said, they do not offer any intentional relational time as a family.
I would guess that most homes have calendared the summer camps and the amusement park trips long before they have scheduled any intentional relational investment. Unfortunately, many homes have probably spent all of their vacation time as they have placed those items on their summer calendar.
Our ability to invest in our children for a lifetime… disciple and mentor them… is not going to come from how many trips we have made to Disney world. The kind of relationship that needs to be built for a lifetime of discipleship is one that is built through intentional relational investment. It requires down time rather than over-planned time.
There is still time to be proactive for your 2015 summer. What if your priorities of true relational investment were represented on your summer calendar? What if in the same manner that you plan the sports camps or amusement park outings you planned some intentional relational time with your family?
It does not cost tons of money nor require long hours of travel to spend transformative time investing relationally in our children. That is the most important goal that all of us could possibly accomplish during our coming summer months.
Does your summer calendar display a priority of intentional relational investment?
Matt Powell serves as teaching pastor at Crossings Community Church, a body of believers whose mission is to engage, equip, and empower homes for gospel transformation in Katy, TX.