Five ways to spend your vacation with purpose!! 1. Clean up a local park by collecting trash, or rake a neighbors yard. Bring an ice chest of popsicles to share. One of my kids favorite memories is cleaning up the local park at the end of our street. While playing one day, they commented on all the trash that littered the edge of the pond. Before I knew it, my husband led our small clean-up crew on a mission. Though this small activity went unnoticed and was a bit of a dirty job, for months afterward, my kids were proud of their hard work and would comment on it each time we visited the park. 2. Create a family mission statement. Businesses, corporations, and nonprofits are a led by vision. Believe it or not, so are homes. If we dont have a clear focus on where were going, we wander through our days and risk wasting our lives on things that dont matter. Your family mission statement doesnt have to be fancy or eloquent to be effective. Heres a simple exercise for creating a mission statement for your family: To ... (what you want to accomplish as a family) In such a way that ... (how you will do this) So that ... (results or benefits of your actions) Once you come up with a statement for your family, do something fun with it! Frame it, paint it, and make it special. We painted ours on an old wooden pallet for a funky flair, and it sits on our mantle, pointing us in the right direction. 3. Make no-sew fleece blankets for a local nursing home or homeless shelter. This is such a simple, easy activity for the entire family, and it will be a blessing to the recipient. To make a blanket, you will need two coordinating pieces of fleece fabric (the larger the pieces, the larger the blanket). To make, simply cut 1-inch strips (fringe) around the four sides of each piece of fleece. Next, join the two fabric pieces together by tying fringe from both pieces together into knots. (See lifeway/homelifeonline for a tutorial.) There are so many fun fleece fabrics available, its sure to bring your family together and add a smile to someones face. It was so fun taking a picture surrounded by all the blankets and getting our picture in the paper, said Jon Welch, age 10. 4. Host a garage sale or lemonade stand, and give the proceeds to a family in need or a nonprofit you believe in. Spring-cleaning is the perfect time to de-clutter and make a difference. Gather unused items from your home, family, and friends, and host a garage sale for good. You can simultaneously host a lemonade stand or bake sale, too. 5. Visit a local childrens hospital and offer to read to patients. They are always so appreciative of this simple gesture. There isnt much more difficult than having a sick child, and hospitals are a great place to let your light shine. There are so many opportunities: from reading to children or the elderly to serving the staff or leaving care packages for those in the waiting room. Visiting a hospital in your area can brighten someones day. Bring stickers and coloring books, leaving lightly used books and magazines in the waiting areas. However you spend your spring break, have fun and make it intentional. Not only will you be a blessing to someone else, youll teach your children the greatest lesson of all: to love God and love others.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:40:20 +0000
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