Family Vacations -- Dads, Listen Up

Pastor Dave, Gerri and the kids started a vacation this week and they are in MI as we speak. Please pray for them as they step outside of their normal routines and spend time as a family.

For many of you, summer is the time when you take vacations because your kids are out of school. My family hopes to take a few weeks off in the middle of July. Here is some wise counsel (that I never heard before) by C. J. Mahaney to fathers and husbands on FAMILY VACATIONS.

How does this sound (wives you can pay me later):

And you will know you are serving and leading effectively on your vacation when you fall into bed at night more exhausted than at the end of the most grueling day of work. The father must enter family vacations committed to serve, lead, plan, initiate, and work, and do all this with joy. This isn’t your time to rest. Only your wife deserves to rest on vacation (because no one works harder than she does the rest of the year).

Mahaney warns families (and especially dads) to not assume that vacations will go great just because you have time off or because you are at a "relaxing" location. He challenges Christian dads to be intentional in serving their families resulting in a God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.

See part 1, part 2, and part 3. Here's the outline of lessons:

1. A Servant Heart
2. A Tone-Setting Attitude
3. An Awareness of Indwelling Sin
4. Studying Your Family
5. Skillful Surprises
6. Intentionally Together
7. Gratefulness to God

By the way -- the picture is of me, my sister Janelle and my sister Katie in the middle 80s.