When I was in college, I was always super busy. I had school, time with friends, work, playing drums, leading a high school small group at our church, and so on. At the time I drove a tiny Ford Festiva that got about 40 miles per gallon of gas. So, I was used to going long times without refueling.
One day, when I had four or five things going on, I noticed I was getting low on gas. But with so much going on and always running late, I kept telling myself I would fill up later. I think you can guess what happened. Yep, in the middle of a very busy intersection on my way to work, my poor little car sputtered and stopped. Finally, I realized I should find the nearest gas station and do the task I had been putting off.
It took my car shutting down for me to realize that I had neglected something that was needed for a long time. In our families, it can be incredibly easy to let busyness get in the way of spending quality time together. However, with our current societal situation and the stay at home orders, it’s as if the car has stopped and it’s time to do what we have been putting off.
With no sports practice and games, school concerts, dance recitals, and so on, we have a prime opportunity to spend quantity and quality time together.
Three Ways You Can Leverage Family Time
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Eat at the dinner table. While most of our families are now home to eat meals, don’t let the comfort of eating at different times or in other rooms rob you of the great conversation that can happen around the dinner table. Have a question of the day, such as “If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?” or “What is one thing that when you see it you are reminded of God’s creation and beauty?”
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Get a puzzle. I know that a lot of you already do this and I also know some of you hate puzzles. But when you do a puzzle as a family it not only has you in close proximity, but it forces you to work together. You can learn a lot about your kids and how they think in the way they help put a puzzle together. Are they organized and calculated or do they like taking pieces randomly and trying to fit them in? When the puzzle is done, celebrate and discuss who helped with which parts.
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Spend one-on-one time with each child. Being with the whole family at all times can take its toll. It’s important to get some alone time with your kids. Maybe it’s taking your daughter out to the yard to kick a soccer ball around and talk about God or maybe it's sharing a couple of late-night cookies with your son and talking about how he is doing with all of the life change that has happened. If you have teenagers that are in another room, maybe you FaceTime them when they don’t expect it and ask if they want to play a game.
While staying at home due to a pandemic is not the ideal situation, treat it as the awesome opportunity it is to refill your family-time tank.
