Finding Your Summer Faith Flow

8 simple questions to nurture your family’s faith culture

Round here there are 9 school days left, 4 of which are minimum, so…why? Our weather is atypically cool and I’m trying not to be sour about it. And, for the first time in a long time, I’m looking forward to the summer with my kids, mainly because we moved home to California in the summer of 2019, so this feels more settled and full of possibility than we’ve had yet.

All this has me thinking about our Summer Faith Flow. For this season ahead, what rhythm will help us connect with and respond to God as a family?

You likely know that we don’t do one-size-fits-all here. There is no single right, best, or guaranteed way to be a family of faith. There are 100 beautiful ways to do it, and so I want to share one approach that can be helpful:

• Take just one season

• Consider the 4 big things that create a family faith culture, and

• Put in just 1-2 practices for each of those 4 categories.

Let’s try it!

One season: in this case, summertime (but you can do this for back-to-school, or the Christmas season, or a school break, for instance).

The 4 big categories that create family faith culture:

• Rituals & Traditions: Rituals are the small things we do daily/weekly/monthly that point to who God is. Traditions are things we repeat, but with less frequency than our rituals.

• Experiences: The things our kids or families do or are a part of over the course of growing up. These may only happen a time or two, like a camp or family trip. (They may also be about your culture or community rather than an event. For instance, my kids have the experience of being part of a multilingual school.)

• Relationships: The people our kids know and are known by, who function as faith cheerleaders on their journey.

• Biblical Exploration: The opportunity to explore the Bible and respond to God.

(That’s the fly-over; I dive deep into this in Woven)

Put 1-2 practices on the radar for each of the 4. This part’s my favorite, and I came up with some questions to help you find those practices for the season.

8 simple questions to nurture your family’s faith culture:

Finish the sentences:

1. In the summertime*, we _______________________ a lot.

2. I love how every summer we…

3. This summer, one part of creation I want to visit or explore is… (mountains, creek, ocean, wildflowers, forest, lake, local park)

4. One part of creation my kid(s) want to visit or explore is…

5. I’m looking forward to going…

6. My kid is looking forward to going…

7. I’m grateful God is…(pick 1-3 attributes)

8. Right now, my kid’s favorite grown ups are…

*again, you can swap out the season.

Just as an example, here’s how this might sound for my family:

• In the summertime, we eat frozen treats and fish tacos a lot.

• I love how every summer we go to the beach weekly and take day-trips to spots around L.A. I really want to visit a super bloom and my kids really want to go to the creek in the mountains, since the extra winter snow will mean the water level is good.

• I’m looking forward to riding bikes to Starbucks in the morning before it gets hot. Riley is looking forward to trying surfing. Peyton is looking forward to playing mini golf.

• I’m feel especially grateful God is a God of abundance and more-than-enoughness.

• The boys’ favorite grown ups are their grandparents and our church group.

Now, like a teeny-bop magazine, let’s decode your quiz results!

• Questions 1 and 2: What if you built on the things you already do and enjoy to foster family warmth and reflect God’s character?

• Questions 3-6: What if you made one simple connection between that activity or place and who God is? For instance, being in nature points to God’s care, creativity, power, and love of beauty.

• Question 7: For the attributes you named, is there a Bible story or two that highlights that trait? What if those were the main stories you explored this season?

• Question 8: What if you planned some time for your kid to be with or talk to the people you named? If they’re local, maybe that’s breakfast or ice cream. If not, maybe they play a game remotely.

Which means, when I think about our family’s summer faith flow, here’s what I see:

• Sometimes, when we eat treats, I’m going to mention how I love that God gave us tastebuds, because God needn’t have done that, but God did. That says so much about God’s goodness.

• As we visit spots around Los Angeles, sometimes we’ll talk about how God made us different on purpose because it makes God happy. And as we visit science-related spots, let’s lean into marveling at the details of how the world works. In the car on the way to our creek visit, maybe we can talk about Jesus’ teaching about caring for birds and flowers.

• Surfing and mini golf both involve longer car rides, and the boys like when I tell them a Bible story in the car. Maybe we’ll do water to wine, the huge catch of fish, or feeding the crowd, since they point to God’s abundance.

• Our church is already getting together for a picnic to kick off summer, and we’ve just started helping out with them at a food pantry once a month. I’ll put a (brother free!) breakfast date down with the grandparents in July.

As you continue to choose flow over formula, I hope you can use the 4 categories to guide and spark ideas. As the seasons change, you can revisit the 8 questions to reimagine a new flow that fits. Some elements may stay the same, other may be short term.

The key is to remember: faith is formed for young people far more by rhythms and cultures than any one particular practice. It’s far more flow than formula.

I’m reading the audio edition of Woven this week!

Here’s what Sarah Bessey (yes, that Sarah Bessey! I maybe squealed a bit.) shared after reading it:

​​"Rooted in God's goodness and a deep respect for the dignity of children, Woven is exactly what so many of us parents have desperately needed. In contrast to the shame and fear-based models of parenting or discipling children - with which many of us are sadly familiar, this warm and wise book operates from a practical, graceful, trust-based paradigm which makes room for your own questions, wrestlings, and story even as you seek to raise your kids in a faith that honours their agency and truth, too. If talking about God and the Bible and other matters of faith with kids has felt like an uncharted wilderness with potential for danger, Meredith is the compassionate, experienced guide we needed all along as we reimagine faith formation with generosity and love."

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If a devotional-type-thing would be a helpful part of your family flow this season, I have two options in the Resource Shop right now. 

One is the Gratitude Journey Guide, which invites your family into 3 key practices, with 3 chat times, and offers 3 focus verses with lovely printables by Jenny Mecher. 

The other is Can I Be Honest?, created especially for ages 10+ to help them practice expressing both trust and doubt together. It has 18 devotionals, each focused on one attribute of God’s, with a response journal oriented around sharing honestly how true (or not) that attribute is feeling right now. 

May the God whose love, justice, compassion and grace flow like a river lead you to the waters, tickle your toes on the shore, and refresh you as you wade in, this season and always.

Amen