Just a Normal Weekend

Our family had another awesome weekend! My personal thanks to Michelle's family (I have the best mother-n-law in the world) for watching the kids Friday night while we went on a date with the 2500+ bikers in Chattanooga Friday night. Seriously, over 2500 bikers showed up Friday night for the annual Trail of Tears ride that started early Saturday morning. Fortunately, not a lot of bikers favor Shogun for dining out, and Barnes and Noble for after dinner activities.

Along with a date with my beloved, we got to enjoy a celebration as our niece celebrated her 5 year old birthday. There is nothing like seeing a bunch of little girls running around the backyard with butterflies painted on their foreheads! And then there is my son running around the side of the house with tiger stripes painted on his face! Priceless.

This party also gave me a chance to appreciate the role of fathers with their children. If you want more clarification, you can give me a call, and I will talk about the specifics. There have been few moments in my life where I had to physically remove (or be removed) myself from a situation, or I was going to resort to physical confrontation. The cliff notes version is like I have always said: God does not tell us we have to have children, but He is pretty specific about how to raise them when He blesses us with them. Guys, if you have a son, don't neglect them, and DON'T "bully" them, especically in front of me.....

After the party, I took the jet skis to my mom's place for winter storage. It was sad to see them sitting in the garage, not being used until the next season. Mom and I spent a few hours cleaning up the shop, straining to get the skis up the makeshift ramp, and then just sitting around and talking. Men, never forget your mom. I love my mom. She is my second favorite lady in the whole world. I owe a lot of my spirituality to her. Thanks.

We spent Sunday talking about Family ministry at Farragut. The interesting thing is, this seemed like a foreign concept to most that were participating in the meet and greet with the speaker. I'll have to admit that if you had asked me about it a few years ago, I would said something like, "that's the purpose of Sunday morning bible school. Besides, I teach an adult class...." As the years have gone by, my thought process is slowly changing. Here are some facts that the speaker noted. Most of the 3 or 4 that read this blog I am sure already know them.
1) An average 4th grader spends close to 40 hours a year doing church activities. I am almost certain you can move that age up to 12th grade.
2) An average 4th grader will spend over 400 hours a year doing homework.
3) Parents have close to 4000 hours a year available to be with their kids. Wow.
4) Over 80% of graduating seniors stop going to church when they graduate from high school.
5) "The greatest challenge at Lipscomb University right now is re-educating students about the importance of Jesus in their life"- speaker. I would like to paraphrase that by saying one of the largest missionary fields in the US right now is college campuses.
6) "It is the parent's responsbility to teach their kids about Jesus, not the church."
7) By the time a teen hits 7th grade, they have "established their faith". What this means is that a teens personal belief structure doesn't change much from this point in time throughout their life. The only things that change this belief is major emotional upheavals like death in the family, births of children, marriage, and "close to death" experiences.
8) "Giving 4 and 5 year olds paper and crayons during the worship service does nothing more than teach them to tune out for the message of God's Word." Ouch. More on that later....
I'll admit that Family ministry seems hard, overwhelming, and some of the concepts are just plain "out there". But the reality is, we as parents have to give our children their faith while they are young, help them develop their own as they mature, and guide them in their own decisions as they grow up. Being a parent is hard work. What Family minstry does, is allows the church to give parents the tools they need to succeed in raising spiritual giants. We have to use the talents that God has blessed our personal congregations with. Each church family will look different. No matter what we try, the focus has to be on educating our children about Jesus, equiping the parents with tools to teach them OUTSIDE of church, and probably even having a little accounability about the whole process.

Sunday night found us at our small group, where we are trying different things with focusing on teaching our kids. This month, we are looking at concepts to help the kids understand the definition of honor. Do you know? "Letting others know, you see how valuable they are." How awesome is that?!?! The cool thing is to watch the kids in our group answer these questions, as well as, doing "barrel rolls and piorettes". We don't use babysitters. The kids are in the group with us, talking about Jesus. We are still trying new things, but it seems to be working. I think probably the coolest thing was when I announced "bible time" last night and they came running from the bedrooms hooping and hollaring, "hoorah! bible time! hoorah!" One parent even talked about how that their son was so excited about talking about this stuff DURING the WEEK, not JUST in small group, or church!! Wow.... That's me giving God the glory, all the time.....

I have to say, this is a typical weekend for us. We go see our extended family, have some "special time", see our church family, teach our kids, and go to bed. We aren't that exciting, but we do stay busy. I thank God everyday that He blessed me with an awesome wife, and some of the coolest kids ever. If you were ever curious as to what a "normal" weekend looked like for us, this was it.