Special Moments

Special Moments

You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Do you have a favorite family vacation memory? Author Suzanne Woods Fisher writes:

Mine was at Pine Island at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, where my family would stay in a rickety old cottage for a week or two. It was back-to-the-basics kind of living, small and simple, but I have such fond memories of those vacations. I can still get a whiff of a certain tree and I am transported back to the lake as a ten-year-old with perpetually skinned knees.

My very favorite memory was a rainy night when my entire family was in the living room at the cottage, reading or playing a game of checkers or stroking the dog. I’ll never forget the buttery glow of the lamp light and the sound of the rain on the roof. It was that rare for my entire family to be together, relaxed. No place to go, no phone ringing, no pressures.

The thing we often like about family vacations is togetherness, but it’s not necessary to wait for family vacations! Turn off the television and clear off your schedule (and ask family members to clear off theirs). Then eat a simple meal together and share what God has been doing in your life. We usually make family time around “events,” but there is nothing wrong with making time for one another in the middle of every day, as the Amish do—when we sit, when we rise, when we’re getting up, or when we’re on the road.

How can you create a special memory for your family today? Who knows? The simple, special moment you create may become one of their favorite memories and one that will last for a lifetime.

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You for the family You’ve given me. Help me not take this for granted. Guide me as I share You with my family in the everyday moments and in the special ones too.