We just finished our last session of the Bible Study called "Parenting is Heart Work" by Dr. Scott Turnsky and Joanne Miller. The book is all giving parents direction to help them shape their children's hearts. The authors took the word HEART to make an acrostic so I wanted to share their words of wisdom each week with you.
They began this last session by talking about having a relationship with your kids so that their hearts will stay open to you even during those hard years of being a teenager and continue on to adulthood. To have a relationship with your child(ren) takes work and doesn't happen overnight. It is doing some of the things they discussed in their DVD over and over with your children.
For example the first letter is "H" for having fun. So I wanted to share my experiences with you.
When I was growing up as a child, one of the things we did in my home was playing games together, especially "cards". The card game we played the most was Euchre. I remembered having so much fun playing different games so I wanted to pass this on to my own children.
When our family moved to Arkansas where Jeff started his ministry, I became a stay at home mom for the first time. Most evenings, Jeff had meetings in the evenings so our boys and I played board games. It gave us a time to talk and laugh. If people stopped over while we were playing, we invited our guests to play as well. On Saturdays, I remember all of us including Jeff would sit and play one of the many "Memory" games.
As our sons got older, we taught them how to play Euchre. They loved to be partners against Jeff and myself and had fun beating us.
Since we lived far away from our extended family, we would come back for a week or so and visit my parents and we would always see my grandmothers. One of the things my grandmother did was make dinner for us and as soon as we were done, she would say, "how about a game of cards"? The boys couldn't wait because they loved to play cards and they were able to get to know my grandmother a little more.
It was kind of funny that while we were still in Omaha and the boys were in high school. They said, "Why is it that we don't play games anymore like we used to". It made me think of how much they enjoyed sitting and playing. Now when we see our boys it seems like we are always pulling out a deck of cards or playing a game of Yahtzee.
Last Christmas, we took the boys who are 20 and 22 to see my grandmother who is 101. On the way, the boys wondered if grandma would want to play cards. We didn't have to wonder too long because as soon as we finished our lunch, she wanted to know who wanted to play cards? The boys enthusiastically replied, "We do"! What great memories we'll have of sitting around together as a family having fun together.
Assignment: Please feel free to share your story of how your family has fun together.
They began this last session by talking about having a relationship with your kids so that their hearts will stay open to you even during those hard years of being a teenager and continue on to adulthood. To have a relationship with your child(ren) takes work and doesn't happen overnight. It is doing some of the things they discussed in their DVD over and over with your children.
For example the first letter is "H" for having fun. So I wanted to share my experiences with you.
When I was growing up as a child, one of the things we did in my home was playing games together, especially "cards". The card game we played the most was Euchre. I remembered having so much fun playing different games so I wanted to pass this on to my own children.
When our family moved to Arkansas where Jeff started his ministry, I became a stay at home mom for the first time. Most evenings, Jeff had meetings in the evenings so our boys and I played board games. It gave us a time to talk and laugh. If people stopped over while we were playing, we invited our guests to play as well. On Saturdays, I remember all of us including Jeff would sit and play one of the many "Memory" games.
As our sons got older, we taught them how to play Euchre. They loved to be partners against Jeff and myself and had fun beating us.
Since we lived far away from our extended family, we would come back for a week or so and visit my parents and we would always see my grandmothers. One of the things my grandmother did was make dinner for us and as soon as we were done, she would say, "how about a game of cards"? The boys couldn't wait because they loved to play cards and they were able to get to know my grandmother a little more.
It was kind of funny that while we were still in Omaha and the boys were in high school. They said, "Why is it that we don't play games anymore like we used to". It made me think of how much they enjoyed sitting and playing. Now when we see our boys it seems like we are always pulling out a deck of cards or playing a game of Yahtzee.
Last Christmas, we took the boys who are 20 and 22 to see my grandmother who is 101. On the way, the boys wondered if grandma would want to play cards. We didn't have to wonder too long because as soon as we finished our lunch, she wanted to know who wanted to play cards? The boys enthusiastically replied, "We do"! What great memories we'll have of sitting around together as a family having fun together.
Assignment: Please feel free to share your story of how your family has fun together.
Loved this post! I too have such vivid memories of playing cards with my family. In fact, we still play cards whenever I'm with my parents and siblings. What a great tradition and pasttime! Thanks for reminding me how important it is to have fun with our children.
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