Why You May Be Struggling to Find Time As a Family
Why You May Be Struggling to Find Time as a Family
I am so excited to have Keri sharing some of her heart with you today. I love her passion and love for family, her heart for Jesus, and the amazing way she makes me feel like I can really have joy in my season right now.
Why You May Be Struggling to Find Time as a Family
We are a little over a month into school and finding time for family nights has been tough. Honestly, this is hard to admit since what I constantly share with others is the need for cultivating intentional family time. Yet, we are failing miserably in this area. Whenever something is not working, I do not like to dwell on the failure, but look for ways to fix it. As I reviewed the past month, I realized there were reasons why we struggled to find time as a family and I think you may be able to relate to these.
Not Scheduling it In
When I take an honest look at the past month, I realize that we have not been scheduling it. Every week, I would comment that we needed to have family night but nothing was planned.
We need to plan things if we want them to happen. I know it sounds simple, way too simple, but I think it is one of the main reasons many of us fail to follow through on whatever we are doing.
Once you know how often you want to have family nights, schedule them. Put them on your calendar or in your phone. Tell everyone in your family so they know to set aside the time.
Action: Schedule your family nights.
Not Protecting the Time
Looking at the past month, I can see times where we agreed to doing other activities instead of the family night. We figured we would just move family night, but then something else came up. It is up to you to protect your family night. Once it is on the calendar, keep it there.
Something I have realized is that we can get busy doing good things. Honestly, sometimes we can get so caught up in ministry at church that we miss out on the ministry right in our own home. It is amazing to be apart of a thriving church community and we greatly value it, but we also know we need to protect our family nights.
It is okay to say no to people. Put a hedge around your family nights and you will never regret it. We will never look back wishing we had done more things, but we will look back wishing we had spent more time together as a family.
Action: Protect your family nights.
Not Keeping It Simple
We can over think things, can’t we? Or is that just me? At times my struggle for perfect comes forward as I plan out a family night. When I am doing this, my focus is on all the wrong things. The focus of a family night is not perfection, the focus is connecting and growing together. This may happen through a board game, making a snack and watching a movie, or playing a soccer game outside together. It really is so easy to build a fun family night when we take out all of our expectations.
Action: Keep things simple. Do what works best for your family!
Now that I look at these three facts, I can clearly see why we have been struggling to find time as a family. I also see action steps to be taken. Just last night we had family night, and it was so good and refreshing.
Want to have a regular family night but don’t know where to start? Sign up to receive access to Keri’s Family Connection Guides where you will receive simple monthly ideas and inspiration for intentionally connecting with your family.
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I completely agree that keeping it simple is key! It’s often the simple activities that children enjoy the most and remember.