Family Connect May 1-7

This month we're looking at the virtue of FORGIVENESS... deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn't have to pay.  We have the privilege of freely experiencing God's forgiveness in our own lives if we confess the wrong that we've done to Him (our sin), and ask Him to forgive us. Because of His great love for us, He died on the cross and rose from the grave, so that we could know forgiveness to its deepest measure, and the privilege of knowing being His child. He has the power and the ability to remove our sins from us, as far as the east is from the west, so that we can live in freedom in our relationship with Him and with others! But, if we have been forgiven, then we should also forgive others! Our memory verse this month is...

“Forgive the things you are holding against one another. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13, NIrV

 

As a family write up a Bucket List of things you would like to do this summer.  Include ideas from every member of the family.  When you’re brainstorming, remember that no idea is a bad idea!  When you’re finished pick your Top 10 ideas that are your family’s "Must Do’s" for the summer.  

Here's our family's: 

• go swimming
• go to Eagle Bay Camp (I'm speaking at Camp C in July, and this is one of our favorite summer family activities.  There's just something glorious about hanging out with kids and young developing leaders, food that I don't have to cook, sunshine and swimming, and the four of us sleeping in a room together for a week!)
• go fishing (my husband's favorite pastime)
• play in our wading pool in the backyard
• grow vegetables in our new square foot garden boxes, and eat them!
• pick strawberries
• make jam
• Aria wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels
• Roscoe and Mommy want him to be potty-trained
• read lots of books (my favorite summer pastime)
• holiday in Alberta
• have a visit with our cousins
• meet our new cousin/niece Baby Lucy!
• go watersliding
• go hiking
• build a fence (its been in the works for the past three summers)
• use our new patio umbrella that we bought super cheap last fall
• go to the IPE parade
• do a garage sale
• go shopping for Kindergarten this fall
• fix the deck 

 Next, try making a “bucket list” of things as a family and as individuals you need to forgive. As a family, list some things you can forgive so you can live lighter, more freely, and together with the people around you.  If this is tough, try listing situations that often cause tension and hurt, and work on changing those situations before they cause hurt (ie. not doing chores when asked the first time, taking turns with the TV, getting homework done before playing with friends, etc.)