This weekend my cousin graduated from Lee University in Cleveland, TN. We decided to make a mini vacation out of it and stopped in Chattanooga to hit up Ruby Falls and Rock City. Have you been there? Well, let me put on my tour-guide-Barbie hat and lead you around…

Rock City is a giant…I don’t know, rock park! You get to walk through a lush garden with mountains all around you.

We went through Fat Man’s Squeeze,

investigated tunnels…

and cracks in the ground.

We went to the top of Lover’s Leap,

and even looked out to see 7 states at once!

Ruby Falls is an underground tour. The only entrance is the elevator–260 feet below the earth’s surface! The tour is an hour long and ends at a beautiful underground waterfall. It was super amazing.

However. Because you are literally in a cave, there are no bathrooms, etc. And about 45 minutes into the tour, Asa starts yelling, “I have to go potty! I can’t hold it!” And sure enough, he couldn’t. While I was holding him he started crying and went ALL OVER ME. I’m pretty sure I got more soaked than he did. It made for a lovely ending to our vacation. And clearly, he will NEVER EVER live it down. Just wait till we visit Ruby Falls when he’s a teenager!

{See what fun things I could talk about if I was a tour guide?!}

Back at Rock City, they were celebrating their 80th birthday and hosting a Southern Flower Festival. One special activity was to make recyclable newspaper flower pots! The kids made one and I thought I’d share it with you, too.

All you need is a strip of newspaper and the bottom of an old water bottle.

Wrap the newspaper tightly around the bottle.

Then tape to keep in place. (Or a sticker, whatever!)

Slide out the bottle.

Fold down one opening to make the bottom of your planter.

Turn over, fill with dirt, plant a seed or two!

(They watered it with a water bottle so it wouldn’t soak the paper!)

Isn’t that fun? I love visiting attractions during special events because there is always extra fun to be had! And I love mini-vacations because they are just as fun as big ones–but you’re not as tired! We had such a fun time being together–lots of laughs, good conversation and memories made.

When was the last time you took a mini vacation?

Our church is very intentional about empowering parents to raise their kids for the Lord. I’ve told you about Asa’s baby dedication and monthly themes like Taming the Inner Monster. Each month, they also host KidStuf a big dramatic-interactive-church-service. The best part is the kids and parents are sitting together. Listening together. Worshiping together. Praying together.

My kids talk about KidStuf all month long. And when they aren’t talking about what we saw last month, they are asking when we can go the next month. It’s that good.

The big idea this month in KidStuf (and in my daughter’s weekly Sunday class) is Prayer: Having a Conversation With God. During the skit, while the characters were learning to pray–we learned to pray, too. And not just by watching. They handed out a small box to each family.

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Inside each box were several items. These items were prompts to help us know how to pray together.

First is the kalediscope. When you look through the kalediscope, you see so many amazing shapes, colors and pictures. This is the time to stop and praise God for how amazing and powerful He is!

Second is a cute little turkey. My kids already love and know the Don’t Be a Turkey, Just Say Thanks song from Yancy’s new preschool album. So, they really get this idea–the turkey reminds us to stop and say thank you to God for all He’s done and is doing for us.

Third is a compass. This helps us remember that God knows the plans He has for us. When we are confused or unsure what to do, we need to ask Him!

Fourth was a blank piece of paper. We were instructed to write a prayer request on it. Then trade it with a family around us! This reminds us to pray for them and for anyone else we think of. (And knowing that someone is praying for us, too!)

Last is a transformer pencil sharpener. OK, this might be a stretch but the idea is we need to ask God to change us. And every day this might be a different prayer, “Change me to be a more attentive wife.” OR “Change me so I will obey Mommy.” OR “Change my heart so I will reach out to friends who hurt me.” The idea is that we are offering up our sinful broken ways and asking God to make us new!

How great is this?! You could easily make this yourself with the same items or with whatever you can find around your house. We have our prayer box on the kitchen table so we can take the objects out at dinner to pray together. And half the time, the kids just take the objects out in the middle of the day to play with them.

How does your family pray together?

PS–This prayer box totally reminded me of our God Can!

This morning (like before breakfast!) I put a bowl in front of the kids. I told them it was them–their heart and their mind. We began to talk about what “purity” is–about being clean of body and mind–without any yucky stuff inside. Then we thought up impure thoughts and actions–saying mean things, listening to someone say a bad joke about someone else, watching something on TV that’s bad, etc. We drew sad and mean faces on some ping pong balls as we talked about them. We dropped each ping pong ball into the bowl. Soon our bowl was full!

I asked the kids how we could get these bad things out of our hearts and minds. They wanted to just scoop them out with their hands. I told them this is why impure thoughts and ideas are so bad–you can’t just get rid of them! They will not leave on their own!

So, how do we get this impurity out? Psalm 119:9 tells us, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” (NIV) It’s God’s Word that makes our minds clean and pure.

We poured clean water into our little bowl to represent God’s Word cleaning our minds and hearts. The more water we added, the more the impure thoughts and actions rose to the top and fell off!

The kids thought this was hilarious because the ping pong balls were falling all over the kitchen! I love this picture–it’s not the picture of salvation (Jesus’ washing our sins away) but of how God’s Word can keep our physical minds clean and pure! I want my kids living by, keeping, holding onto and filling their minds with God’s Word so the impure things won’t have a place to stick!

This would also be a perfect activity to do if your children had been watching, doing or saying something impure. You could learn some specific scriptures that would help “wash” the impure thoughts out and say them as you do this activity.

If you do this activity, I’d love to know about it! Share in the comments or leave a picture on our Facebook page!