Hi, my name is Samantha Snipes, and I am involved in Women’s Ministries. Today, in this family ministry conversation, I’m going to talk about being a healthy spiritual family. Not a perfect family, but a family who learns every day to be a little more like Jesus.
My husband, Todd, and I have been married for 22 years, and we have 2 boys. Cole who is 13 and Skylar who is 10. We both travel extensively, so integrating God into the fiber of our family is vitally important.
These days, with all the activities our children have and our work schedules, we can’t just have intentions to talk about God and His ways. But we do it as part of life together. It is who we are.
We believe that God has entrusted our children to us. And it is in us to make deposits that they’ll be able to use in their lives.
Your family’s spiritual health will increase with every moment, and He will be revealed. Not in a perfect family, but in a spiritually healthy family—one who learns and grows together.
It’s Part of Everyday Life
Throughout the week, we can capitalize on our conversations, such as in the car or on the way to soccer. We talk about how God moves in our lives and teaches us about the way we should go. We tend to go deep in the car. So if you’re riding with us, look out.
It starts simply from a question or a comment, and we are aware that God is teaching us something from His Word. And through the Holy Spirit, we learn how we can grow from it and implement it in our lives—for the next time that we face a similar circumstance.
This is integrated into our everyday lives together. No additional time necessary. Just focusing on the one who knows our every need and desire.
Finding Encouragement Through Unity
As a family, we like to call ourselves Team Snipes because we know God put us together to accomplish something for Him on this earth.
As we go about life with this mindset, it helps unify us and causes us to propel each other toward our independent and family goals, using our individual gifts and talents.
An example of this is, Cole is videoing me now with Skylar helping with the lighting. Cole makes movies in his spare time. It is his passion.
Setting Aside Intentional Time
Another thing we like to do to create a healthy, spiritual family is our family devotions. We try to do this weekly.
Todd and I or our boys lead the devotion. We pull out a Scripture and then create a devotion around it. We talk about what God is teaching us from it and how can we relate it to our lives.
A great Scripture to start from is in the Homefront Magazine Scripture of the month. This resource is packed full of ideas. And during these times, it is amazing and inspiring to see what your kids can teach you. Ours even pull out the white board to illustrate their points. It is so awesome. It is a great time of learning, growing, and praying together.
Communication Is Vital
To have a spiritually healthy family as a goal, we know as parents—a husband and wife—we have to communicate and get together regularly to go over our independent and family goals.
We have to have our vision tweaked together. So we do date lunches, and we set up meetings with each other to accomplish this. We many times have this intention, but action is necessary to accomplish it.
And as we listen to God, He appoints time in our schedules to make this happen—even with a high-intensity life. All things are possible with Him, and when we do this, we are rewarded with awesome things that will make us and our family spiritually healthy.
Intention vs Action
I encourage you to take the leap from intention to action, and see what results happen in your lives, in your families.
Your family’s spiritual health will increase with every moment, and He will be revealed. Not in a perfect family, but in a spiritually healthy family—one who learns and grows together. It is truly an adventure with God.
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?
