Yesterday I wrote about Hearing and Doing God’s Word ~ this is the life lived according to His Word, a life of SHEMA (Deut 6:4-9).  In Deut 6, God tells us to teach His Word to our children, through our daily lives.  Most of the year this revolves around school, church, and after school activities.  But in the summer, SHEMA (instructing our children by Hearing and Doing) can take us in another direction, one that the kids might find a little more fun!

So, in the interest of fun, blogger Melissa Blair, created a great Summer Family Bucket List that I shared on our FB page last week.  This week, my family and I decided we should be more intentional about our summer fun too; so we created our own bucket list! We were pretty inspired by Melissa and copied some of her ideas directly.  Others were more specific to our family.

As we move through our family time together this summer, I hope that we parents can approach it by demonstrating the Greatest Commandments to them: Loving God first and best, and loving others as we love ourselves (Matt 22:37-40).

I am doing a lot of writing this summer, now that we are on a break from homeschooling.  It is easy to get caught up in my own personal to-do list (will talk more about this in a few weeks!).  But planning and committing to family fun is more important that that to-do list.

I want to make good memories.  I want this for my kids and I want this for me and my husband too.  Above all, I hope that all of our days, this summer and beyond, are filled with the awesome knowledge of the constant and abiding presence of God.  We seek Him in difficult times; shouldn’t we also make Him a part of our fun? Part of our #SummerofJoy…

God cannot give us
a happiness and peace apart from himself,
because it is not there.
There is no such thing.

– C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

How can you make God a part of your family’s summer plans?  Can you look for Him in the majesty of the sunset, taste and see that He is good in His provision of fresh fruit, and feel His love for you, by loving others well?  What’s on your family’s bucket list this sumer?