Following In His Steps (Even After Bible Camp)

I’m spending today with this lovely lady.

She spent the better half of the week at a Bible camp. This was our first “real” camp experience – where we dropped this smiling Kayla girl and her excited big sisters off in their cabins and waved good-bye.

And, oh my – why didn’t anybody tell me about the flip-flopping stomach and teary eyes that this mama would experience!?

With the big three at camp and the little three at Grandma and Grandpa’s, I’d been prepared to sleep for a couple of days straight. The first night I maybe got four hours of sleep, and in the morning (which also happened to be my birthday) you could find me looking at that tentative camp schedule like a hawk – frequently giving updates to my husband (because maybe he too secretly wished to know every single detail about what they were doing in twenty minute intervals). And, just in case you were wondering, from what I can gather their Bible exploration time was really in the morning, not in the afternoon as listed… which really throws the whole schedule thing off. Although I got all my information from my sweet little eight-year-old who also said that all they served for meals was salad. :)

But, I truly had a lovely time with just my husband and me. (Although, I must admit, that the excitement of blowing out birthday candles just wasn’t the same. But it was a fun twist, as for the past ten or so years, it’s been the other way around – where I’m at home with all the kids and my husband’s speaking at camp.)

And driving back home for hours with my little lady talking about her favorite parts, singing the same two worship songs over and over, and her all making plans for going back to camp again next summer… it reminded me why we chose to let them go in the first place.

Because there’s just something special about camp’s atmosphere that is fun but a bit uncomfortable. And at (a God-honoring, Truth-speaking, Gospel-loving) Bible camp, many kids commit to following Christ.

And, so our family {Bible} time looked a bit different this week. But it was just what was needed after a week of “GOD IS AWESOME!” and “JESUS LOVES US!”

Because those things do not end at camp. And following Jesus should not be left for the counselors alone to exemplify.

Family {Bible} Time – 1 Peter – Week 6
(Corresponds with this week’s 1 Peter 2:11-25 Bible Study)

We snuggled up together and talked about what she learned about Christ while at camp. Then we read 1 Peter 2:11-25 together (for younger kids, you could just focus on verses 21-24), and talked about how we could continue to follow His example.

We played a little game where we tried to follow each other’s steps, and talked about what it might look like to follow in Jesus’ (big, beautiful, righteous, humble) steps.

And we attempted to take some pictures making the same fun faces – for if we’re truly following Jesus, we’ll start to look and act a lot like Him!

{Oh, I love this girl!!}

And that was it! Just a sweet little time together sharing our heart’s desire to follow in His steps because of all that He has done for us. (See, it doesn’t have to be fancy! Sometimes the little things make the biggest impact!)

I’m looking forward to sharing some precious talks with my other children (that I’m missing like crazy) as well.