I’ve always wanted to build a treehouse. It’s one of those things that stuck in my brain when I first saw the Disney movie, “Swiss Family Robinson†and it never really left.
I made a few attempts over my childhood years, but there’s not much of consequence a seven year old is going to come up with on his own. Most were destroyed at the first puff of wind over two MPH. Nevertheless, the dream never left me.
Recently that dream has resurfaced in conjunction with another goal that I have—the quest to be a father who is ‘present’ for his kids—really present—not just a bread winner who sleeps in the same house. As a pastor of a large church I’ve seen my share of disintegrating families due to dad chasing his dreams at everyone else’s expense.
It isn’t pretty.
It’s amazing how the “father wound†as John Eldridge calls it in his bestseller, “Wild at Heart†can stay with kids well into their adult years.
Well, I determined before I ever had kids that it would be different for the Singleton family. And I can tell you that God blesses tremendously when your priorities are in the right place. My very best friends in the world are my wife and kids. They are a Ephesians 3:20 family! <— Look it up. And recently I decided to resurrect the old “Tree house†dream.
But I needed help. And boy did God bring it! I’ll tell you tomorrow how and I think you’ll agree that God has a sense of humor!
In the meantime, I’d love to hear from some of you. What great ideas do you have for spending quality time with your children and (most importantly) pointing the way to Jesus? Leave a comment below and let’s share with each other and learn from each other!
Don’t forget, Brookies—THIS weekend is our grand opening at Southbrook Weddington and the start of our “Vintage Jesus†series. If you don’t invite everyone you know, I can’t stop the weeping and gnashing of teeth you’re sure to endure!
Use this E-Vite HERE for an easy way to invite.
Rob Singleton is the lead pastor and founding pastor of 
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Hey…for some quality time, we have gone out and laid on our deck and watched the stars come out…in some cases, no one could go into the house, until they saw l0 stars! We have also put a tent in our living room and camped in it. (not such a great idea at the time)….we read the Bible and pray for our teachers and bus drivers before they go to school….we talk about our “high and low” for the day at dinner time, and eveyone has to say something. We’ve ambushed siblings when they come home from school with water guns….we play hide and seek in the house after dark…just goofy fun things.
Most recently… we went on our annual camping trip to the NC mountains for apple picking and some other outdoor time. We love to take in the beauty of nature and just praise God for the opportunity to be together as a family. This year we decided to add horseback riding to our trip, it was fun day. Which was alot of fun… Mom and Dad were a little sore but, we had a blast. The place we went to had goats though and our youngest Meredith was convinced we should move from Charlotte to this little mountain town and become goat herders. She couldn’t sell Daddy though.. he would miss his “geek toys” too much!!! This is just one of the traditions we are starting in our family, these days everyone is soooo busy we too want to make sure our girls have happy memories of the family times we spend. We also have our annual summer vacations to Emerald Isle… but that is for another time.
Thanks for opportunity to share… and I can’t wait to see the Treehouse Rob. I always wanted one of those too. Lucky Nathan and Juliana!
Sue
Well this week we have been teaching our youngest daughter Anni how to ride a bike w/out the training wheels…It has literally been the whole family getting into the act. It started on Sunday afternoon and today is Wednesday…After school her sisters have been helping her and then after dinner her mom and I have been helping her. We all have gotten into the act! It has been the quintessential family project this week. To see her go from deathly afraid to abundantly confident in a short period of time has been fun to watch.
Our family loves ‘projects’. And every time one comes up we all band together and we ‘make it happen’. Hopefully we are creating lots of great memories for our kids.
Our quality time is usually done through gaming. My wife and three boys love to play various types of games whether it be on the Wii, 360, board games or card games. And typically we try to play games that are ’strategic’ in gameplay in order to stimulate the brain cells (ok….Rock Band isn’t very strategic but at least we work on hand/eye coordination
)
For more serious quality time, we have family prayer time every night before the boys go to bed. We go over prayer requests and answered prayers then takes turns praying aloud.
And finally, we always try to eat together. That time around the dinner table is one of the best places to communicate with each other.