Time WITH the Family

Men, have you ever had so much going on in life that your were not with the people you were with? Yeah, you may want to re-read that last sentence. The past few weeks have been total chaos in my life. Three weeks ago I was at CentriKid camp with my children’s church group, two weeks ago I was at VBS, last week I was putting down hardwood flooring. In all of these events there was a group of people I was with but I was not really with them. I was around my family, wife and three kids, but not with them. Yes we all saw each other and talked when needed, but we did not spend any real time with each other. Let me tell you, after three weeks of that, it becomes a strain on everyone!

Which leads to today. Last night my wonderful homeschooling mom made the suggestion that after church we just grab something to eat and go somewhere to have a picnic. I think that we could have eaten at the county landfill and she would have been happy as long as we were all together. So, after getting everybody ready this morning for church, I told the kids to pack a change of clothes. This of course brought a barrage of questions of “Why?”, “Where are we going?”, ” What are we doing?”, “Shorts or long pants?” and they continued on. Yet as the onslaught continued, I did not fire back any answers I just smiled and pushed on. This of course builds all kinds of anticipation toward whatever may be coming up, and will result in the aforementioned questions being repeated over and over. Again, smile! After church we all emerged changed and ready for what awaited us.

List: (We are homeschoolers, we do have list!)
1. Gas – Check
2. Drive-thru to get chicken – Check
3. Get big drinks – Check
4. Drive to High Falls, GA – Check
5. Have a picnic and relax with my family – Big HONKING CHECK

We placed a table-cloth on the concrete table and sat down as a family in the outside surroundings of God’s creation and ate and talked. Soon the kids were chasing dragonflies and playing. We tracked down two geocaches and went on a hike in the process along the edge of the waterfalls. We talked about the boys climbing mountains, my daughter being a princess and the wife being my queen! We climbed on rocks, laughed, made funny faces, played with bugs and enjoyed each other. I held my wife in my arms as we watched the kids attempt to skip rocks across a rushing river. Soon the now becoming daily rain event moved in and we started to walk back on the trail. As it rained, I walked in the back watching over everyone and smiled. I spent time with my kids and my wife today. Not just time around them, I had done that for the past three weeks. I actually spent time that means something to them. I hugged them and played with them and laughed with them. I spent time WITH my family.

Men, so many times, this is our life. We go and go making sure that everything gets done that we call necessary, and we leave those that we love to the side all in the name of being the dad. When sometimes being the dad means that we don’t get everything that we deem necessary done, but we take care of the family above all else. So as the summer pushes on and things happen around your house, don’t forget to take time WITH the family!

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