Berg Family Fun Night REVEALED

With three little kids life can seem, and often is, pretty crazy.  Whether you are running in between gymnastics and karate or just trying to balance dinner with no "new" messes, there are times where everything feels out of control.  For the Berg's most nights are pretty insane scheduling-wise (and maybe mentally as well :)) but Friday late afternoon and evening has become our sacred space to put everything aside and just 'Be'!! 

We've had some requests to walk through a typical "Berg Family Fun Night" (our Faith Talks)... Word of caution: This is NOT THE WAY this is just our way and we are still looking for new ideas and rhythms to make it better!!  We hope it sparks some great ideas for you!!

Berg Family Fun Night starts around 5p and begins with an activity chosen by the "key kid" (which rotates each week with a different person, including Court & I), you are allowed up to $20 but are encouraged to be creative (i.e. Free :)).  So far we have:

• Went Geocaching (The World's Largest Scavenger Hunt)
• Reverse Berg Family Fun Night (Dessert first, Devo, Dinner, Park)
• Played "Around the World" (Basketball)
• Built & Colored a House out of Cardboard
• Home Made Crafts & Valentine's
• Watched: 'Wreck-It Ralph'
• Went to the Jenks Musical: Thoroughly Modern Millie

After the activity, we then have dinner... This is where it gets interesting for us, we have said if the activity cost money then we need to eat leftovers at home, if the activity was free then we can go somewhere to eat (typically wherever we have a giftcard... yeah, we're cheap).

After dinner we sometimes have dessert and sometimes just jump into our devotional time.  Whomever is the key kid leads our discussion and though I was quite the skeptic about the kids teaching us, I have been so blessed by their thoughtfulness and how they have paid extra close attention at church the week they know they are leading the devotional (something that just happened, we never brought up).  So far we have covered:

• Matthew 7:7-8 (Ask, Seek & Knock)
• Luke 17:11-19 (Thanking Jesus for what He has done for us)
• James 1:27 (Looking after widows)
• Matthew 7:24-27 (Wise & Foolish Builders)
• Matthew 8:23-27 (Jesus Calms the Storm)
• Matthew 7:12 (Treat others better than self) & 1st Cor. 12:8-10 (God gives us all gifts)
• Romans 12:2 (Finding your purpose in God and not the world)

Our devotionals run anywhere from 4 minutes to 10 minutes (but we never want to go over 10).
Around now it's time to start getting ready for bed, so we meet together in the entryway, of our home, to talk about "the one thing" we really liked or learned from our Berg Family Fun Night together.

In our entryway is a small table with 3 matching vases and a big jar, each of the matching vases has a solid color in them.  Each color is one of the specific kids in our home and each piece is exactly how many "Fridays" we have left together before he or she turns eighteen.

So at this time (sharing our "one thing") the kids take out one of their individual pieces and we pray over them.  After our short prayer of thankfulness for our time together they each put their piece into the big jar.  To some this may seem silly or even very sad to think about but for us it's a very intentional focus.  We do not have a lot of time together (as you can see with Jackson's, blue, already a third empty) so we want to make the most of each of our opportunities together.

Berg Family Fun Nights in just over a month have become a staple and the very DNA of who we are... We hope you will start your own family traditions and take some time to prayerfully consider some ways to be super intentional with the time you are blessed with your family!!

**Coming Soon: a full year of age appropriate "Faith Talk" sheets walking from Genesis - Revelation...  Keep your ears open this summer for this NBFamilies release!!



What are some of your family traditions (in day-to-day life or around the holidays)? 

What are some of your ideas for "Faith Talks" (or even better, tell us about one you've already done)?