Friday, November 16, 2007

Carriage family, train family or jet family???

I've been reflecting on the 3 types of families lately. Being that our family has gone through so many changes over the last 10 years, where do we fit??

Carriage family (Life in the slow lane)
they never start anything too quickly. THey enjoy life and experiences. They make time for reflection and thought. They keep their schedules clear to avoid stress and to have time to study, plan and understand. Their struggles can be that they don't have enough structure, or too much structure to protect their slow pace lifestyle. They can tend to fly by the seat of their pants becuase they dislike change and the unexpected.

The Train family: (Life in the fast lane)
This family is always adding one more box to their train. Their train seems to continually be getting longer and longer. They can have a difficulty saying no to things. They will think to themselves, "What's the point of going to youth group when I can lead the youth group?" If they see a need, they will meet that need. In order to handle all their commitments, they are highly organized and structured. They are steady and consistent. They are reliable and willing. But they also tend to overdo things and are overcommited. They will give their "yes" without counting the cost. And their one on one family time can lack due to all the activities in their schedule.

The jet plane family (Life at the sound barrier)
between work, church and kids programs, they can't mess two stoplights in the morning without running behind. Their days start with a "preflight briefing the night before. They carry palm pilots and on a good day will multiple targets....the grocery store, dry cleaners, school adviser, oil change, dog groomer, business meetings, music lessons and more... They can handle alot, love variety and trying new things. they are great at juggling lots of tasks, acomplish alot and learn quickly. But boredom comes easily, their lives are high stress and there is little family interaction. They also can be inconsistent due to their overpacked schedule.

All of these types of families have their strengths and weaknesses. None of them is wrong or right, God made us all different. We just need to learn to submit what we have to Christ so that He can mold our families into what He needs us to be. The beautiful thing about God is that He made us! He knows what kind of families we are! He made them that way! So He takes what He's made and molds us into families that can make a difference, love others, serve others and build the relationships between children and spouses.

I was going to share what kind of family we are and some of the things we are going through, but I just feel like I need to leave it with this for now. Take who you are to God and allow him to mold and perfect you today. If you are a jet plane family, take some time to sit down as a family and build relationship between all of you. If you are a carriage family, go out and commit to somthing out of your comfort zone for Christ. Take your strengths to God and let Him perfect them, take your weaknesses to Him and have Him help you overcome them.

Blessings in Jesus today :)

5 comments:

Crystal said...

Some interesting thoughts, I wonder if you highlighted the last part because that's where you fit in? I don't know where we fit, probably somewhere in the middle.
Blessings

Nin said...

*giggle giggle giggle*....sorry....I just needed to have a little giggle about Crystal's wonderings about you being a jet family. Did you just accidently change the font or something? hehe

Trail Rider said...

lol, yeah, that is funny, no, crystal, joe and i are a carriage family at heart. We are very busy due to 4 kids and homeschooling, and in some ways being forced into the train family, but if we had it our way, we would stay a carriage family.

Kim Funk said...

very interesting!!!

Unknown said...

Wow, what a creative mind you have. For us there are seasons of each, as life pushes and pulls in more directions.