souldare

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33 NLT)

Treasuring moments and seeking adventures top my favorite’s list for summer living.

Summer is for spending a few weeks with four “ants” who love adventure as much as me. I am their aunt, but they spell my title like the insect. We fondly call our time together: Ant Kamp.

Creating time and space for learning, making things, soaking up God’s presence and just plain having fun together fill up our days. We have so much fun that many of my grown-up friends join us or help plan some of our excursions. (Thanks to Phyllis, Jeanette, Tracy, Carolyn and Kathy for making this week special.)

Usually I pre-plan the activities calendar, and then have them fill in their own calendars. This year our pace has been slower, my organization looser and the atmosphere relaxed. We still have quite a few “ideas” for the next few weeks, but we all agreed that we wanted to remain flexible. They made their own calendars and then we randomly assigned our listed ideas to each day. We want to go to the zoo, the library, and a local water park. Each child gets to pick a topic and be the teacher of the day. Cupcake Wars, England Day, Texture Day and Stay in Your PJs All Day are some other activities we hope to enjoy.

The highlight of each year is how God pursues our hearts. We take time each morning to focus on a Scripture or read from a book. This year I pulled out my well loved copy of Tales of the Kingdom, and the theme of “Seek the Kingdom of God” emerged.

I arrive early each morning, so my sister can leave for work. The kids sleep in, and I retreat to the back porch.

The first day, I started to go wake them up and gather us for breakfast. But the Spirit prompted me to stay put and see if they would seek me out. What joy when the youngest girl peeked her face through the window, discovering me waiting for her. And subsequent mornings, I enjoyed seeing a different face appear in the window and the delight when each one found me.

God, too, waits each day for us to seek Him out, to peek around the corners of our Bibles or sneak a look over our coffee mugs to see His smile.

During the week, I loved observing each of the kids’ personalities and preferences blossom, especially, as they made their calendars, which we decided were “maps” for our adventures. And how each one decorated their treasure boxes with their particular flair.

We witnessed the many ways that God reveals Himself this week, even through a cartoon about Lego people. The boys noticed that a phrase used in one episode came from the book of Proverbs. We looked up the reference, and one of the boys chose it for their memory verse this week:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

His choice led to a group discussion about what it meant to sharpen one another, how analogy was being used and how sharing life together sharpens our minds.

What a privilege to be an Ant to these young persons, who are so willing to share life with me.

How are you seeking God? Have you noticed Him pursuing you lately?