A N > Recent Status Updates

Conversations:
Practicing conversation is practicing the art of friendship— to teach our kids to befriend the world around them
Conversation is where family becomes friends and friends become family.
1. Pursue one on one moments
2. Practice conversation as a way to heal trauma
3. Model vulnerability

10 ideas to kill pride:
1. Work at listening
2. Practice gratitude
3. Learn from criticism/counsel
4. Cultivate enjoyment of life
5. Embrace weakness
6. Laugh at yourself
7. Visit a cemetery
8. Study the universe
9. Mediate on heavenly worship
10. Bathe everything else in humility

Habits of play
1. Create an appetite for the imagination & good stories - read to them or have them read
2. Play with them - make regular windows to do this, we can’t do it all the time & we don’t need to feel guilty about that
3. Send them out to play - helps grow their imagination, ability to break out of boredom and make their own hobbies

Family rest - what do we want that to look like?

Family devotions:
God loves messy things.
Start simple, focus on consistency.
Catechisms are helpful to build a foundation but we love the idea of reading out of the Bible & explaining God’s Word at an age appropriate level with our children as they grow up.
Short prayers - thank & ask - we’ve started to do at bedtime every night.

Screen time:
-its harder to use something responsibly than to stay away from it
-set regular times that children (and yourself) can expect to have screen time (Friday family movie night, after you read x amount on a long car ride)
- someone/something will be forming our kids, we want it to be us
-curate what we watch (make a list & rewatch good stories!)
-use moments to pause a movie & teach

Mealtimes:
-have something to transition into the evening meal (light a candle)
-be intentional in conversation at the dinner table (highs/lows, ask a question)
-eat meals together regularly
-invite people into the mess

Discipline:
-have a plan to stay consistent a public setting
“And discipline…is not a tool for controlling behavior but rather a process of discipling a child’s heart toward the right loves.”

Morning: Open your eyes to reality
1. Start with prayer
2. Word before phone
3. Gather before going

Loving this read while taking it slow & absorbing such beautiful lives. Finished part 1 on Ann Judson last week and thought no way am I going to admire Sarah Judson more… but a couple chapters in, and I was wrong.