This past weekend it was Father's Day here in the United States. It is usually a nice time for us to celebrate the Dads that make a difference in our lives everyday. In our family we usually celebrate by cooking one of my husband's favorite meals, leaving the house so he can take a nap, and giving him a home made spa treatment. The children love getting a chance to pick a simple gift and give dad the special attention he deserves. It is a fun idea.
Although our Father's Day weekend was a time of fun and activities, I have noticed that many are not celebrating this day. It was first brought to my attention in worship. The Pastor was sharing a sermon about fathers and the great influence they have on their children. He was helping us all to see how we have a responsibility to take our faith and knowledge of Christ's amazing love and share it with the children we come in contact with. The sermon had just begun when a gentlemen stood up and walked out of the service declaring, "I didn't have a father." We spoke after the service, and he didn't seem interested in hearing the details of the sermon, he just wanted to keep declaring, "I didn't have a father." In the evening, my social media page was filled with similar statements. Father's Day is a tough day for many.
On one hand, I can completely relate to these sentiments. I have never met my father. He left before I was born and I have no idea where he might be. When I was in college I was able to find his mother, my grandmother. She wrote to me for several months, but then she told me she couldn't write any longer (I think my father told her to stop). I am also assuming that she has passed away because I am not able to find her any longer. It is sad, I wish I had an opportunity to know them both.
This lack of a father in my life has helped to shape who I am. I knew that I did not want my children growing up without a father, so I was very picky about whom I felt God was leading me to marry. I also developed a heart for children that were in the same situation. Children without fathers have many emotional gaps in their lives. This is one reason that we have added two fatherless children to our family. Our desire is to help them see a different definition of family and help them see how they can break the cycle of fatherlessness that they were born from. (They are the 3rd generation in their biological family to have a fatherless home)
However, the fact that I am fatherless does not define who I am! I now have the greatest father ever, the Heavenly Father. He is the most amazing father that anyone could ask for. He created me, He showers me with blessings and He loves me unconditionally. He knows my needs, my secrets, my deepest dreams and He cares for my every need. He is your Heavenly Father too! I encourage you to claim His love if you are struggling with not having an earthly father.
I would also love to encourage you to reach out to others. If your family is blessed to have both a mother and a father, reach out to a family or two who does not. Children NEED to have time with both a mother and a father. Maybe you know a family where the father has died, left or was never involved at all. Take a moment, get to know the family and invest in those children. Maybe they would love to go fishing with you or even just out for ice cream. Fathers don't need to do anything special, it is special just spending time together. I was truly blessed to have a wonderful Grandfather and some fun loving Uncles that invested time in my life; it made an incredible difference for me. You don't need to invest a ton of time, even just three or four times a year will make a wonderful difference.
It is abundantly clear to me, after the reactions from this past weekend that there are many hurting people in our world today. Many of them are hurting because they don't have an earthly father involved in their lives. We can do something about this, let us share the love and knowledge of Christ with those God has placed in our path. There are over 40 verses in the Bible about fatherless people, and almost every verse is telling us that we need to care for them and help them to live their lives to the full potential God has intended for them. I pray that we will all have the courage to start a new relationship with a fatherless child and share God's amazing love with them!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Travel Fun
It is summer and a great time for families to travel together on great adventures. There are lots of great places to go: trips to visit family, trips to area attraction or trips to national parks and monuments. I hope you have some fun trips planned for your family.
We recently took a road trip with the whole family. Road trips can be challenging, especially with children. Today, I would like to share with you some fun things that we do on our trips to keep the time moving quickly and the adventures positive. I like to think that our vacation begins the minute we start out of our driveway. I try to plan things that the whole family can be involved in, so we are making great memories together even when we are on the road. We do have a DVD player, but limit the number of movies we watch on each trip. I, of course, did not "invent" all of these ideas on my own, but I am happy to share the wisdom of my friends and our experiences with you.
Activity Bags:
-We have two different types of activity bags. We ask the children to pack their own activity bag (however, now that our family is so large, we ask them to share bags). These bags are filled with books, coloring stuff and other activities that can easily be done in the car. They keep their bags near them in the car and can access them when ever they are feeling bored.
-The second type of activity bags are items I keep with me. I have a few items in large zip lock bags or just in my bag that I pull out when everyone needs a little boost. These would be items the children will not be expecting or are new to them. On this last trip we had new sticker books, glow bracelets, fun snacks, chenille crafts and gel pens.
Audio CDs:
-We take the opportunity to listen to great audio CDs on long trips. We love "Adventures In Odyssey," "Jonathan Park," and classic literature books. We usually get these items from our local library. These are made for children, but are extremely interesting. My husband and I enjoy them just as much as the children. These also usually lead to some great discussions about faith, friendship and character.
Car Games:
-There are tons of car games available these days. It will only take a few moments on the internet and you will have more games then you could possibly need. Some of our favorites are road bingo, the alphabet game and guess the mileage. When discussing games with a friend, I discovered that our family's alphabet game is much different then the one others play, so I am going to share it with you.
Our alphabet game moves around the car and gives each person a chance to share their thoughts. If I start, I would have the letter A. I need to think about the letter A and decide the answer to three questions. Where would I like to go? How do I plan to get there? What am I going to buy? If I have A, I would say something like: I am going to take a trip to Australia, I am going to take an airplane and I am going to buy an apple. The next person now has the letter B. Maybe they will say they are going to Bobby's house, they are going to take a boat, and they are going to buy a ball. Then we move to the next person who has the letter C, and so on. The only rule is that your answers need to start with the letter you have been given. We do make some adaptations for very small children, as a word may sound like it starts with a K when actually it starts with a C; and for the letter X, each answer must have an X in the word, but does not need to start with X. We have a great deal of fun with this game. Try not to get caught up on logistics. It is ok if a child wants to go to Hawaii and get their by horse. They both start with H and the child did a good job to think of them. Some of those types of situations, really help to make the game funny and keeps the game moving.
Trip Tracker:
-This last trip, which was over 29 hours in the car, we used a trip tracker. Great idea! We took some time to look at the route we would be taking and printed the name of a city we would be passing through about every 30 to 45 minutes. One of our daughters took the names and attached a small piece of velcro to the back. She then attached the names of the cities around the top of the inside of the van in the order that we would be passing through or stopping at them. She also printed a picture of a van that looks just like ours. She attached velcro to that as well. The velcro van started under the city of our home town. As we traveled, we would move the van to the next city when we reached it. Each child was given the chance to move the velcro van a few times as it past by the area where they sat. It was great fun! The children new exactly how much farther we needed to go, how long it would be until we stopped and there we no times of asking "are we there yet?" We really love this idea and will certainly be using this activity again.
Every type of travel is an adventure. I pray that you and your family have an amazing time making memories together and making the most of your travel experiences!
We recently took a road trip with the whole family. Road trips can be challenging, especially with children. Today, I would like to share with you some fun things that we do on our trips to keep the time moving quickly and the adventures positive. I like to think that our vacation begins the minute we start out of our driveway. I try to plan things that the whole family can be involved in, so we are making great memories together even when we are on the road. We do have a DVD player, but limit the number of movies we watch on each trip. I, of course, did not "invent" all of these ideas on my own, but I am happy to share the wisdom of my friends and our experiences with you.
Activity Bags:
-We have two different types of activity bags. We ask the children to pack their own activity bag (however, now that our family is so large, we ask them to share bags). These bags are filled with books, coloring stuff and other activities that can easily be done in the car. They keep their bags near them in the car and can access them when ever they are feeling bored.
-The second type of activity bags are items I keep with me. I have a few items in large zip lock bags or just in my bag that I pull out when everyone needs a little boost. These would be items the children will not be expecting or are new to them. On this last trip we had new sticker books, glow bracelets, fun snacks, chenille crafts and gel pens.
Audio CDs:
-We take the opportunity to listen to great audio CDs on long trips. We love "Adventures In Odyssey," "Jonathan Park," and classic literature books. We usually get these items from our local library. These are made for children, but are extremely interesting. My husband and I enjoy them just as much as the children. These also usually lead to some great discussions about faith, friendship and character.
Car Games:
-There are tons of car games available these days. It will only take a few moments on the internet and you will have more games then you could possibly need. Some of our favorites are road bingo, the alphabet game and guess the mileage. When discussing games with a friend, I discovered that our family's alphabet game is much different then the one others play, so I am going to share it with you.
Our alphabet game moves around the car and gives each person a chance to share their thoughts. If I start, I would have the letter A. I need to think about the letter A and decide the answer to three questions. Where would I like to go? How do I plan to get there? What am I going to buy? If I have A, I would say something like: I am going to take a trip to Australia, I am going to take an airplane and I am going to buy an apple. The next person now has the letter B. Maybe they will say they are going to Bobby's house, they are going to take a boat, and they are going to buy a ball. Then we move to the next person who has the letter C, and so on. The only rule is that your answers need to start with the letter you have been given. We do make some adaptations for very small children, as a word may sound like it starts with a K when actually it starts with a C; and for the letter X, each answer must have an X in the word, but does not need to start with X. We have a great deal of fun with this game. Try not to get caught up on logistics. It is ok if a child wants to go to Hawaii and get their by horse. They both start with H and the child did a good job to think of them. Some of those types of situations, really help to make the game funny and keeps the game moving.
Trip Tracker:
-This last trip, which was over 29 hours in the car, we used a trip tracker. Great idea! We took some time to look at the route we would be taking and printed the name of a city we would be passing through about every 30 to 45 minutes. One of our daughters took the names and attached a small piece of velcro to the back. She then attached the names of the cities around the top of the inside of the van in the order that we would be passing through or stopping at them. She also printed a picture of a van that looks just like ours. She attached velcro to that as well. The velcro van started under the city of our home town. As we traveled, we would move the van to the next city when we reached it. Each child was given the chance to move the velcro van a few times as it past by the area where they sat. It was great fun! The children new exactly how much farther we needed to go, how long it would be until we stopped and there we no times of asking "are we there yet?" We really love this idea and will certainly be using this activity again.
Every type of travel is an adventure. I pray that you and your family have an amazing time making memories together and making the most of your travel experiences!
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Deep Roots
An important part of "Raising An Orchard" is having deep roots in God's Word. Deuteronomy 6:7 tells us that we need to teach the Word to our children. It tells us to talk to our children when we are at home, at night, in the morning and anywhere you go. Psalms 119:11 tells us to hide God's word in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him.
Last year, we took a challenge as a family to serve more, we met our goal of 52 weeks of blessing. This year we are taking a challenge to memorize God's Word. Our goal was to memorize a Bible verse each week. It is a huge challenge, but one we felt was extremely important. Well, it is about half way through the year, and I need to tell you that we have adjusted our original goal. We started memorizing a verse a week, but changed our plan to a verse every other week.
By taking two weeks to learn each verse we are able to not only learn the words the verse says, but the meaning behind the verse....which after all is the point. The adjustment in the plan has also given us an opportunity to review verses we have already learned. It has been a great journey thus far!
Let me encourage you to start memorizing scriptures with your family. Maybe you can memorize one verse a week or one verse a month, create a schedule that works best for your family. It is a great way to invest in your child's life!
By taking two weeks to learn each verse we are able to not only learn the words the verse says, but the meaning behind the verse....which after all is the point. The adjustment in the plan has also given us an opportunity to review verses we have already learned. It has been a great journey thus far!
Let me encourage you to start memorizing scriptures with your family. Maybe you can memorize one verse a week or one verse a month, create a schedule that works best for your family. It is a great way to invest in your child's life!
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