By Erica, Contributing Writer

Summer is so fun, as long as you aren’t 8 or 9 months pregnant! The hot weather comes and it can become unbearable in some parts of the country (ahem, Phoenix!!),  but I love how it makes couch potatoes into adventure hounds.

I want to encourage you, that before this warm weather streak of summer is over, to make some of those activities God-centered.

As a Christian, it’s so easy to get involved in the day-to-day activities of the warm weather season, but let’s not forget to include God in everything we do. The awesome thing about God and the Bible is that since God made everything, He can be involved in all good and godly things we do in our life. There is always a Bible lesson or principle that can be learned from life, but it’s our job to find it and apply it.

That is why I love how many opportunities families have to be able to bring God’s way of living or a thought about spiritual things into their life in a new and different way in the summer time. Our family has incorporated a lot of different things in our life both last year and this year that you are welcome read about here. I want to get your wheels cranking so that you might have the creativity to be able to do some different activities with your family that include honoring the Lord.

My hope is to encourage you not to just fill your days with activities, but to fill them with activities that will help each person in your family develop a godly relationship with the Lord. If the family grows together, prays together, learns together, serves together, then it is because you have chosen to facilitate that growth, prayer, learning, and servitude. Not everything we do has to be a long drawn out Biblical exposition, but make what you do interesting enough to learn the wonders of the Lord.

God-Centered Activity Ideas for Yourself

• Take a new approach to reading or studying your Bible. Do a word study, listen to an audio Bible, find a devotional book to go along with your Bible reading.
• Find new godly music that will encourage your heart and then share that music with someone you know.
• Use a new prayer routine – Pray with a friend regularly, fast and pray one day a week, use a new type of prayer list using the days of the week.
• Write in a prayer journal to God, list only thanks and blessings instead of prayer requests.
• Make it a point to make something right with someone you have wronged.
• Take a picture of something in nature that inspires you to worship the Lord for all He has created and journal about it or find a Bible verse to go with it and display it in your home.

God-Centered Activity Ideas for Your Marriage

• Find a place you like to visit with your husband where you can admire the beauty God created.
• Sit on a park bench and talk about the blessings that have come in your life since God brought you together.
• Watch the sunrise or sunset together and take that time to pray together about goals you have in your marriage.
• Memorize a new Bible verse or chapter together this summer, practice it in your free time or when you ride in the car together.
• Buy a bird watching book and find a place to watch birds together.

God-Centered Activity Ideas for Your Family

• Do some family devotions outside under a tree or around a camp fire.
• While traveling declare “Blessings Time” and then have each person in the car give 3 blessings that have happened to them in the last week.
• Find good and godly character building books or audiobooks/dramas to listen to together.
• Create a “God’s Creation” bucket list, where you make a realistic list of beautiful places God has created in your area and visit them.
• Adopt a needy person in your neighborhood or in your church. Make it your purpose this summer to serve them in many ways and show your family how fun it is to serve others by being available to be a blessing.
• Instead of going Christmas caroling, sing fun and upbeat songs about the Lord to strangers and friends alike.
• Visit a Christian-oriented place. For example last summer we went to Passages, a Bible history museum, and we went to Focus on the Family. You can read reviews of our adventures if you click on the link. Add something like this to your summer adventures and you will be so glad you did!
• Read books together that encourage your walk with the Lord… but most of all read the Bible.
• Get involved in your church. Be a part of a missions outreach, cleaning your church building as a family, attending church camp, volunteering to be a part of Vacation Bible School or something similar where you can serve TOGETHER.

Beyond Adding God-Centered Activities…

Treat the people you are with with Christian brotherly love.

Romans 12:9-11 says, “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil: cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord…”

Super Spiritual Mom cannot talk about how God made the sparrow and cares for each of her children if she has not shown them care. Super Spiritual Wife cannot talk about goals in her marriage if she has bashed her husband all day. The heart has to match the spiritual actions.

So, I challenge you not to just add God-centered activities but to be God-centered so that you can do these things without ruining their purpose. I encourage you to take the challenge to add more things about the Lord into your summer and see if God will use that to strengthen you and your family.

If you have done something God-centered this summer by yourself or with your spouse or family, please tell us what you did in the comments below. We would love to hear about it!