Sometimes it's hard to be the child of a director of religious education. When other kids are enjoying their Christmas break, your mom may decide your family should go hang out at a monastery for the Feast of the Holy Family (actually happened a couple of times) or, unable to do that, she may just throw together an impromptu Family New Year's Retreat.
Last year around this time, with only minimal eye-rolling from family members, I put together the fastest-planned and implemented family retreat in history. I had been reading the book Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly, and was thinking of ways that I could pass on to my children some of the insights that I'd gained from reading that book.
On a whim, I pulled together a few activities (such as making a "growth chart" where each of us looked at where we feel that we've grown the most in the past year, and maybe highlighting some of the places where we want to focus in the coming year). We also read a chapter of Matthew Kelly's book together and talked about it, and then I invited over a couple of fabulous friends who I asked to be spiritual mentors for my kids, and each of us took one child at a time out for ice cream and talked about prayer and how our relationship with God is.
I think the kids liked it. Especially the ice cream part.
As I write this, there are still a few days before life gets back to full speed from the holidays. I hope to use this time to help refocus myself on goals and priorities, not just for my work or for my physical fitness, but for my soul. What do I need to grow in holiness? It is important to help my children consider these things, too. I think I see a few ice cream (or hot chocolate!) dates in my future!
No comments:
Post a Comment