Memorial Day

I have to admit to you, I love Memorial Day weekend.  It’s not just for the day off work, though it does help!  When I was growing up this was always the start of summer in my mind.  In my hometown of  Port Clinton this is the weekend of the annual Walleye Festival.  That meant a parade, and just lots of stuff going on in town.

Now as I’ve grown up the Walleye Festival has become less important to me.  In fact, if I don’t go there at all I’m fine with it.  Yet, we always end up going back to spend time with my parents and enjoy the parade (aka enjoying the kids who enjoy the parade).  It brings back memories and is always an enjoyable family time.

I mention all of this because  in reliving my memories we’re hopefully also creating memories for our kids.  We’re trying to pass on the good times and have things that we do that are traditions.  These kinds of things will hopefully be things that our kids will remember when they have kids of their own.  It’s those lasting memories that we feel are important for a family and that bind all the generations together.

What kind of memories have you created for your family, or do you want to create when you have a family?  If you truly want a loving family atmosphere with kids that love God as much as you do, then you have to spend time together.  So, why not spend time creating memories/traditions that will have a lasting impression.  Grow close to your kids, and hopefully they’ll be able to pass that on to their families as well.

Lastly, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of those who have spent time in the armed forces and local support services or had loved ones who have done so.  I thank you for protecting our freedoms.  God bless you all.

Traditions

So, the other day I carved pumpkins with my family.  Our tradition has been for each of the kids to have their own pumpkin.  They get to design the look, scrape out the insides of those pumpkins, and help with the carving of that design.  It’s a nice little thing that we all get to do together every year.

One thing about traditions like that is that they bring families together.  They give the kids something to look forward to that they can rely on every year .  Our kids know that they’ll get some special family time every year at this time, and at many other times throughout the year.  Although we are very busy almost year round we still make our family a priority. 

You see, in order for a family to be strong you have to make time for one another.  You have to be there in the good and bad times.  You have to not only spend time together, but WANT to spend time together.  And that doesn't mean just in front of the TV all the time.  That can mean something as simple as playing a game together to doing a family campout   But whatever you do, make sure that your family is important to you and that God in the central focus of that family.