Karen and I made a plan, about the kind of family we wanted to be and that included goals for the short term and long term.
We want to be a home where our kids feel comfortable inviting their friends to play, where we can be a part of that process and not wonder what they’re up to and with whom. At the same time, we’ve got some anxiety about visitors and especially young ones. Deciding that God does not give us a spirit of fear, nor does He want us to be controlled by it, we set the goal of throwing Arthur his first birthday party with friends. Lest that should shock anyone, he only started having friends his own age about a year ago.
Of course, we went all out. Arthur chose the theme and we went to work, turning paper plates into masks, printing pictures over our friend’s “cornhole” target, decorating ping pong balls and an exercise ball and of course decorating a cake all to his favorite theme. It was exhausting for sure preparing, herding children through games and then cleaning up, but it’s not every day your young man turns seven and everyone had a blast that they won’t soon forget.
It’s a small step, maybe, but I think it’s important to set goals that define our family’s values and give our kids (Prov 22:6). I found some good tips in the book, “Raising a Modern Day Knight“
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