We’ve hit the point in our family garden where we are starting to reap the fruits of our labor. A fan favorite amongst our kids right now is the sweet peas. Whenever we go out to check on the garden and give it a good watering, our oldest asks if he can have a pea. The other night we ended up picking a good handful and the four of us ate all of them before we got back inside. To date, I think only one pea has made it into the kitchen, but I won’t argue with a toddler wanting to eat a vegetable.
These summer months give our family a time to break from the usual. From tending to the garden to going on a vacation to the family cabin, the summer provides us the opportunity to take a pause and devote more intentional time to family and rest. In turn, we can then head into busier seasons with more vigor. While it is good to step back and let things slow down for a bit, taking a vacation from the usual should never mean taking a vacation from Christ.
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In John 15:4-5, we read about the idea of abiding in Jesus and how a “branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine.” Jesus goes on to say that we need to abide in Him to “bear fruit” in all that we do. To me, a fruitful vacation would be one that leaves me feeling refreshed and renewed physically, mentally, and spiritually. But if I don’t take Christ with me on vacation, how can I expect to come back spiritually renewed and ready for what is ahead?
There is a great temptation to break from the Faith when we are out of our routines in times such as vacations. Mental hurdles like “we don’t know the local parish very well” or “it’s a further drive than our kids are used to” are only hurdles if we let them become such. Planning for Mass and time for prayer on vacation doesn’t need to be complicated though. Yes, it might take more planning than a typical week but making time for Christ on vacation shows our children that Christ is the center of our family. Just as a garden won’t bear fruit if we ignore it for weeks at a time, our spiritual lives need regular attention as well.
This summer, our family vacation will be a chance for us to show our children that the Faith is truly a part of our everyday life. We will pray before meals, even if we go out to eat, tell God about our days at bedtime, and attend Mass on Sunday. Yes, the parish we attend on vacation may not be familiar to us, and the Mass time might be in the middle of a typical nap or mealtime, but Christ doesn’t call us to be picture perfect in how we live the Faith.
This is a chance to show our children how exciting it can be to go to a new parish and talk about the universality of the Church. How amazing it is that we get to share with our children that the same Christ we encounter at our parish is the same living Christ we can meet in Mass across the country and around the world. When we take this approach, planning our Sunday then becomes something to look forward to and not just a checkbox to get back to vacation time.
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If you find your family traveling this summer, consider finding the parish you plan to attend online and show your child pictures if there are any. If there are two parishes you are looking at, ask your child which they’d like to go to for Mass. Simple ways of involving your children in planning to go to Mass can help them to see how living a life of Faith is not just something we do, but the root that everything we do stems from. We might not see how things like this impact our children in the moment, but the impact is still being made.
In the same way that it has taken intentional time and care to get to the point of having peas in our garden, we are called to that same attention to living the Faith and sharing it. Sure, taking a walk around the backyard each night is a nice routine, but seeing our children eagerly pick and eat peas is the fruit of all the watering, the weeding, the waiting. With sharing the Faith, it goes beyond just taking our children to Mass because it’s part of our routine, but because we want them to know and love the Lord and abide in Him.
In the end, we cannot force faith on our children, just like we can’t make a pea plant sprout. What we can do though is cultivate the right environment, give the support needed to help our children’s faith take root and grow, and trust in the Lord. After all, Christ reminds us that apart from Him we can do nothing. Our task is to remain close to Him and teach our children to do the same. If we’re lucky, we might even get to enjoy a few more peas along the way as we await to see the fruit the Lord has for our lives and our children’s.