Fun

Adam’s parents love to give presents and they recently gave our kids something truly awesome: a trampoline!

Because the trampoline is child-sized, it’s low enough for Sky and Micah to climb onto without any help from me. I get to sit in a chair next to it with my feet propped up and watch them jump like maniacs, burning off all their excess energy. It’s pretty much the perfect toy (thanks again John and Terry!), especially since I’m 36 weeks pregnant and big outings to the park or bike rides around the block are at the bottom of my “desired activities” list.

When I was little my parents set up a trampoline in our backyard, so watching Sky and Micah on theirs brings back lots of happy childhood memories—jumping for hours with all the neighborhood kids, piling blankets and pillows on it and sleeping outside all night, putting the sprinkler on it in the summer, and jumping off the trampoline into the snow during the winter.

The more I think about it, the more I’m aware that my parents gave me and my siblings a very fun childhood. Even the way they went and had seven kids. Our house was almost always a chaotic mess of people, and for the most part, we loved it. My parents never communicated to us that we were a burden or lots of extra work for them (though now as a parent myself I understand that we were). They only talked about how much they loved having a big family. They made sure we all sat down to dinner together every night and they made a big deal out of all the holidays—helping us come up with the best costumes for Halloween, hiding Easter baskets for us, and filling our stockings at Christmas.

Once my mom and I were talking and she explained their philosophy, which originally came from my Grandma. “The most important thing to us is God,” she said. “We are a Christian family.” It’s true—my parents regularly prayed and talked with us about the Bible. Church was not optional for any of us at any time. In some ways my parents were fairly strict. But we didn’t grow up in a serious house. As my mom explained, “The last thing we wanted to communicate to you kids or any of your friends is that Christians don’t get to have any fun.”

Life as a Christian is fun, especially when we don’t take ourselves too seriously. God is pretty clear in His word that He loves children and wants us all to be a little more like them. Maybe when our kids get a bit older and I’m not hugely pregnant, we’ll get a bigger trampoline, one Adam and I can jump on too.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17