Family Activities

What is your favorite day during the week?

Friday – with all the TGIF jokes aside – was my favorite day of the week. In the hectic pace of serving a church everything had to be completed long before Friday came around. Therefore, following the “tradition” of many pastors that I highly revered, Friday became my day off. Wedding rehearsals and hospital emergencies had a tendency to alter the “normal” weekend schedule, but over time I learned to protect Friday as sacred.

Why would I treat it as sacred? It was family night. Family was always priority #1. If I was doing counseling or preparing my sermon/Bible Study/Sunday School lessons, along with calls from my district superintendent and/or bishop, a call from any member of my family would be reason enough for the church secretary to interrupt me with the call.

Family night meant that the four of us would go to dinner (normally Pizza Hut) and then to a movie, Putt-Putt, bowling, arcade or simply back home for a game or two. It was an important time in our lives much as “Tuesday-night-at-Mom-and-Dads” is now.

On a “normal” Friday night the decisions concerning what we were going to do fell to me. It was the rest of the family’s choice to have it that way. But, I must confess, there was one particular very difficult and exhausting week that simply drained me of my energy. I was not in a good mood. As we all changed clothes I declared, more than once, that I was too tired to make the decision … it was going to be up to others this Friday evening to direct the activities. We sat in the car in the driveway for about a half-hour – I was silent and no one else in the car was willing to say where and what they wanted to do. Sooooo, I got out, went back into the house, changed clothes and turned on the TV. Nobody was very happy on that particular Friday evening. The rest of the family never made that mistake again… including me!

It is important to the very fabric of the human condition that families have weekly routines that causes them to be together to celebrate the special relationship they have with each other. We have been able to sustain this even though our girls are now adults and a spouse, boyfriend and grandchild has been added to the mix.

I would like to hear about your family traditions and how you stay connected. Next Friday’s blog will be based on what you share.

Quote for today: This is taken from a survey of 500 families done by Focus on the Family listing the top traits of successful families … “*Communicating and listening *Affirming and supporting family members *Respecting one another *Developing a sense of trust *Sharing time and responsibility *Knowing right from wrong *Having rituals and traditions *Sharing a religious core *Respecting privacy”.