Family thanksgiving
When asked, it is fairly easy to come up with a list of ways in which being a pastor and a pastor’s family adds stress to the family. It is important to acknowledge this reality and develop ways to handle such stress. However, one needs to avoid developing a victim mentality and having a pity party.
One way to do that is to occasionally recognize the positive side of this equation. The design of such a discussion will differ depending on the ages of your family members.
If you have small children, you may want to make this conversation into a game. Play pastor’s family spin the bottle. Place a bottle in the middle of the family gathered in a circle. Spin the bottle and see who it points to. That person must tell the rest one of the good things about being in a pastor’s family. Then spin again and repeat the process. Each good answer gets a point and the first person to get 5 points gets to sit there while the other members prepare and serve him or her a special dessert.
If your children are late middle-school and above, the thanksgiving discussion may take on a different design. There would be positive power in simply having a discussion about what each sees as a positive part of being in a pastor’s family. Let the pastor keep silent and simply listen. When they have completed their thoughts, the pastor then develops a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the blessings they have received as a family.
If your family is open to a more creative design, you might want to have some discussion on what your family is thankful for and then invite each member to create a simple poem expressing their thanksgiving for the family. Depending on the nature of the family, you may want to suggest a particular form for the poem such as haiku, or some other type of poetry that is easy to follow. However, if a person is so inclined towards free verse or other forms, then they should develop their own poem.
Each poem could be the basis for family grace during the rest of the week.
