The Beginning of Family Nights

A few years ago we tried to start a weekly Family Night using the Heritage Builders Family Night Tool Chest book.

I love the book, and it is packed full of fun ideas for spending time together as a family while teaching your kids the principles of God's Word. My kids loved it, but it required quite a bit of planning ahead, which I am...ummm...not very good at. I think we did exactly two of the weekly lessons.

For months afterward my kids would ask all the time, "When can we do family night again? Can we do family night this week?" It just seemed too daunting and overwhelming and we never did it again. I felt terrible.

Until last month.

After reading about the weekly family nights that our youth pastor's family does, I caught the bug again. Starr keeps everything really simple (simple is good for me) and doable, and makes sure the focus is on having fun and spending time together as a family. It is, after all, family night.

Now I know what you're thinking. I know the Word says we are to be teaching our children about God and His ways literally every waking moment. And please believe me, I am so completely for that. And I absolutely DO believe that learning God's Word can be fun. But, you know, sometimes we just want to......well, be silly! Like pushing eggs around with our noses or carrying buckets of water on our heads or playing charades.

I want my kids to have fun learning about God, but I also want them to grow into their teenage years with a boatload of memories of having fun with their family. I am convinced that a sense of belonging and bonding with their families is a major factor in helping kids maintain a sense of stability and security during those tough adolescent and teen years.

Don't worry. We're not abandoning the Family Night Tool Chest forever. And we will definitely have plenty of life lessons incorporated into family nights in the weeks and months to come (stay tuned for a family night about God's TRUTH, coming soon!).

But for now, may I present to you the Posts on the Path inaugural Family Night:

Family Olympics!

(I had no idea what order the colors of the rings went in....and I only got the green and yellow backwards! Pretty good, huh?)

We played balloon volleyball, had egg-roll races (pushing eggs with our noses)....

and cotton ball relays, carrying a cotton ball with a spoon (ever tried it? it's harder than you'd think!)

I don't know how we came out with so few pictures. It was our first go-round, and I think we were just pre-occupied with getting everything to run smoothly. We had so much fun! It's been a long time since our family has laughed so much together!

And that's what I want. That's the whole reason we're doing this. There is so much to be serious about in life - school, work, chores, discipline and training, homework, doctor visits, sibling rivalries, money issues - I want "family" to be a place of joy and smiles and fun and laughter. I think it's working. :)

I'm running a few weeks behind in getting our family nights posted. I'll try to get caught up in the next week or two so that I'm posted them on a more timely basis. If you're interest in starting a family night of your own, or if you already do family night and are looking for some new ideas, check out WhittakerWoman or visit Starr at Lost in Laundry. You'll be glad you did!