01.07.12 GPS for Families

GPS for Families

This new year, set some family goals with your kids. These do not have to be big, audacious goals that are sure to fail but rather a few simple ideas that will make your family stronger this year. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Pray each morning in the car or before you all leave for school, work, etc. You can create a poem prayer or a quick one-line prayer that is easy to remember. This will make it seem less formal and intimidating.
• Plan one day/evening a week that will be for family stuff only. Games, movies, sports, whatever sounds fun to you.
• Dedicate yourselves to a real Sabbath each week. Plan downtime as a family. Reading, napping, lounging around, whatever de-stresses your clan.
• Keep the Christmas cards you received and plan to pray each week for one of the families.
• Make health your theme this year. Talk about physical, mental, and spiritual health and ways to improve on all three. Don’t make a goal that you can’t achieve, but commit to reminding each other to be healthy in all of your choices.
• Put a limit on time in front of a screen (computers, TV, video games, etc.). Screen time is not bad for you in small doses, but it takes away from relationships and physical health when used in excess.
• Plan a mission project to work on all year long. Raise money, save your change, collect items or adopt an agency or family in need. Create a project your family will enjoy doing, and you will benefit from working together and loving others.

Weekly Prayer

God, I thank you for life in this new year. I know it is your gift to me. I don’t want to take it for granted. Help me to change what needs to change, to do what needs to be done and to be who you want me to be. May my new year not be defined by the past year but by your will and promises for my life. I ask for your blessings for 2012 and offer to return those blessings to you and the people you have given me to serve. Amen.