Doin' the daily stuff

As we were discussing yesterday, the mindset that personal pleasure and comfort are the highest attainments is endemic in our community and our culture. As Christian men, we've got to hold a higher standard. We need to influence the world for Christ, right? Ah, but before we can expect to influence the world, it needs to start in our own homes. How do we keep our family's hearts with us in a world that continually distracts?

Today we took a family drive. One of our favorite peach orchards has Red Havens on now (Oh, yum!). With sixteen hands picking, it doesn't take long to fill up several bushels. Even though the peaches were reasonably priced (I didn't think 60 cents a pound was bad!), we still walked out of there with $143.10 worth of peaches!! Since the orchard is about an hour from our house, we took our time coming back. We drove another half hour north to our favorite blueberry farm for $36 worth of fresh blues, then hugged the shore of Lake Michigan on the way home. A beautiful drive, to be sure, but the most beautiful part for me, was that the entire day driving up and back was spent talking. Constantly. We never had the radio or cd player on. We shared dreams, we shared memories, we shared stories and jokes. All nine of us! No one was left out; even the 8-month-old made her opinions known.

This is what it's about. Spending real time together. The Disney World trips and baseball games are great, but when our older kids share their favorite memories, it's usually things like Dad doing the Funky Chicken dance, or Mom throwing the boy out in a snowbank, when he was particularly ornery. It's the everyday stuff. The mundane stuff. The sitting-down-around-the-dinner-table stuff. The funny thing is: we may think this stuff is primarily to keep our kids' hearts at home, but I believe it does just as much, if not more, to keep OUR hearts at home.

I expect to have more stories for you this week as we put up 238 pounds of peaches and 20 pounds of blueberries. Doin' the stuff...