Summer Adventure 5-Day Reading Planنموونە

I can only find the North Star with help from others. I find the Big Dipper and use the two outermost stars in the bowl to trace a line to Polaris, the North Star. The northern sky is a large clock, with the North Star at its center. Those who study the night sky can pinpoint their place on a vast ocean, the time and the season. Though I can’t read stars to navigate the seas, the longer I gaze at them the more I understand my place on this earth.

I’m not a great adventurer. I’m middle-aged. Pudgy around the center. These days, I’m only exploring the edges of the wild. But I feel it. I look deeper in and further up and hear the voice of the wild calling me to my better self. I take my boys to the edge of the wild because I want my boys to hear that voice. The rush of wind in the trees. The echoes of water carving the canyon. This is the voice of God. He created this world and the others, so we may hear and see and know something of Him. I take my boys to the edge of the wild to teach them to hear God’s voice. And hope, someday, they will go deeper in.

“There is something embedded in us that draws us to the horizon. We are not entirely at home here. So we look beyond the oceans and deserts and mountains to the stars, and we wonder why. It’s the distant wind that catches our face in the breeze and we breathe it deep through our nostrils and it smells of freedom and we know it is freedom we seek.” 

There are only a handful of summers when our children are at the age of adventure.  Make the most of them. This summer, lean into the wild.  Take your children fishing or biking or hiking.  Swim the lake.  Surf the ocean.  Climb the mountain.  When you are done, sit by the campfire and stare at the stars. Help your kids ask the bigger questions and believe in a bigger version of themselves. For soon, our season of summers will end. Your kids will grow. Then leave. The quality of their lives will be largely shaped by the quality of their summers spent with you.

Action Steps

• Take God's word with you.  Write down your favorite verses from this plan and share them with your children while on the adventure.  Ask them what their favorite is and memorize it together.  Try doing it on a hike.  It might be a nice departure from the endless game of, "Daddy, what's this?" 
• For more adventure inspiration, check out Roger's book, "WE STOOD UPON STARS" 

Find out more about the author at RogerWThompson.com .