Joe,

Two days late here again! Maybe I should change my post day to Thursday???

So as I am thinking about how I can teach my children (and myself) to best spend their time according to the prioritities that God’s Word helps us to set. Last week I talked about our greatest priority should be our time with the Lord and the different ways we can increase our love for Him. By doing this we will obey the first and greatest commandment that Jesus gave us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

The second commandment was of course to love our neighbors as ourselves. As Abby just learned in her catechism questions, everyone is her neighbor, but some neighbors will be closer in proximity than others. And none so more than our family.

It seems in our culture and the day we live in that it is so easy to forget about family. We get so busy doing things and running around to different events, that time with the family gets pushed to the side. One study I saw said that only 30 to 40 percent of families eat dinner together 5 to 7 nights a week. Not that the family dinner is the end all, but it is a strong indicator of things.

So what can we do to make our family a strong second priority? I think one of the biggest things parents miss out on is planning on how much they think it is wise to be out of the home. I know that what happens to us at times is that things come up a lot in one week and by the time we get to the end of the week, we have been out all but one night without even realizing it! (Or course, we quickly realize it when the kids are tired and hit meltdown!) Figure out how many nights you are going to be out in the week, and guard those other nights.

Also, come up with some fun and special events as a family. Some people like to do special family nights with a dinner and then other special event. Other families may go out for special times. A great set of messages to listen to are from the Mahaney’s on their family life. The messages are in a part 1 and part 2 format.

I am sure there is more that could be expounded upon with this subject, but I will leave at that for now.

Seeking with you,

Erin