Traditions – at Camp… and at Home!

At Ridgecrest Summer Camps, we have a lot of great traditions that have been ongoing since the 1930’s.  One of them, at Camp Ridgecrest, is singing “Tell Me Why”.  Our old brochures indicate that this has been happening for well over 80 years!  At Crestridge, our Council of Progress ceremony has been ongoing since camp started in 1955!

Songs, ceremonies, and other traditions are an important part of camp… and also of families!  They provide a familiarity, a “down home” feeling, a connectedness between the past and the present.  Traditions help to make us more comfortable.

Are you making sure your family has traditions?  I remember as a child, one of our family traditions was to go to the Dairy Queen every Sunday afternoon after Sunday lunch.  We loved the soft serve ice cream, which you couldn’t get just anywhere at the time.  I remember one time my dad letting us get Parfaits in the conical plastic glass cup, which I believe at the time cost 25 cents!  That was quite a treat, as we usually were allowed only the ice cream cone which was 10 cents.  Am I showing my age?

Another family tradition we had was praying before each meal around the table.  You might think that everyone does that, but I don’t believe that happens as much these days as it used to.

Are you providing family traditions for your family?  Maybe you visit the park or do a nature walk with your children on a given schedule.  Maybe you set aside a time for family devotions.  Maybe a tradition started when you were a child has carried over to your family now that you are the parent.   Whatever your traditions might be, find some that work for your family, and keep those traditions.  It will help your family stay better connected, both now and in the future!

Ron Springs
Camps Director
Ridgecrest Summer Camps
November 2012

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Six Summer Olympics Lessons for You and Your Kids

This past summer, while your kids weren’t at camp, I’m sure lots of you huddles around the TV to watch some of the greatest athletes in the world…

“As you enjoy[ed] the adrenalin-charged competition, [did you] remind your kids about the years of determination, discipline, and sacrifice that shaped these athletes into champions. Want to know how they got where they are today? We asked two Olympic gold medalists to reflect on the life lessons their own families taught them – lessons you can pass on to your kids today.

Going the distance

A broken home. Rebellious teen years. A dangerous violent streak. Bryan Clay faced these obstacles and more on his way to the 2004 silver medal and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, which he hopes to defend at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Looking back, the husband to Sarah and father of a 2-, 4-, and 6-year-old says he could have ended up in prison or worse. But through the persistent prayers of Bryan’s mother, who insisted he go out for track and field in middle school, Bryan found a new passion.

“As I entered high school, she repeatedly told me: ‘God’s got a plan for your life. He’s got something special in your future. I know it,'” Bryan recalls.

Bryan eventually dedicated himself to the decathlon, but he still faced obstacles despite wins in high school and college. His height and weight were below average for a decathlete, and his scores fell short of qualifying for the Olympic Trials. Bryan had committed his life to Christ but still struggled with partying and bad choices. However, he managed to stay focused on Olympic gold – thanks to his family in Christ.

“I had people in my life, a support system,” Bryan explains. “Isaac Newton has a quote: ‘If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ People like my mom, wife, and coach have been the giants in my life. They raise me up and swallow their pride, and sacrifice to see me succeed. God intended for us to be in community. Success in life and faith is all about the people you surround yourselves with – accountability partners, people to encourage you.”

Today, Bryan, 32, relies on God and his family for strength to help him perform well. He hopes to become the first decathlete to medal in three Olympics. Bryan also prays for and encourages his own kids to embrace the faith and work ethic that changed his life.

“What I’ve learned from my mom is that parenting is one of the most important jobs in the world – it’s what shapes the beliefs and values in your kids,” Bryan says. “Though they may not understand or follow your lifestyle in the beginning, when they hit that time of need, they will come back.”

Three lessons I teach my kids

1. God first

“When I was in college, it was something they preached to us all the time,” Bryan says. “‘God first’ really has shaped the way I do things now. My priorities are God, family, and track, and everything else last. I hope our kids see that modeled and put God at the forefront of their lives.”

2. Always try your best – even when things come easily to you

“My son’s really gifted in academics; he’s a first grader reading at an eighth grade level,” Bryan shares. “But we try to teach him about always giving his best even though he might be able to get away with writing three sentences on his homework.”

It’s important to Bryan that he teaches his kids to strive for excellence rather than succumb to society’s pressure to be the best. “You simply give 100 percent in everything you do and let that be OK,” Bryan says.

3. Win and lose well

“Let your kids see how you handle winning and losing,” Bryan says. “I share a lot of my own real-life experiences … ‘Daddy does this, and this is how he deals with it.’ I don’t win every time I go out, but I always give my best effort and that’s what I’m proud of. That’s why God needs to be first, so we aren’t defined by our wins and losses.”

A perfect balance

Four-time Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson grew up in an ordinary family in suburban Iowa, taking fishing trips with her dad. And that down-to-earth upbringing was exactly what helped mold her into an extraordinary athlete.

“My parents are the type who never pushed me or made me go to practice,” Shawn, 20, says. “I never had the dad who said, ‘You can’t give up,’ or ‘You have to win.’ They were so supportive and wanted to be in the front row cheering me on no matter what I did.”

In elementary school, Shawn began taking lessons at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute. Gymnastics brought out her playful side and her love of adrenalin. Still, Shawn’s parents made sure her passion didn’t become her whole life.

“Mom and Dad talked freely with me about God,” Shawn says. “They taught me to look to God as a tremendous source of comfort and peace through all of life’s ups and downs. They encouraged me to talk with Him, and I know my mom regularly prayed for me.”

The road to elite competition was long, but by the time she was 13, Shawn had made the national gymnastics team and continued to climb to heights she never thought possible. She was named the 2007 all-around world champion and the 2007 and 2008 all-around U.S. champion. As a member of the 2008 U.S. women’s gymnastics team, she won an Olympic gold medal and three silver medals at the Beijing Olympics. She even won the eighth season of “Dancing With the Stars.” But in 2011, a ski injury to her knee threatened to end her promising career.

“What drove me to overcome my injury was the challenge in my mind of Can I?” Shawn relates. “I always loved the physical part of gymnastics, pushing yourself and proving the naysayers wrong. After the accident, I felt physically unfit and mentally unhealthy, but gymnastics helped push me into a better place and turn my life around.”

Shawn’s comeback on the gymnastics scene means she will once again compete for a spot on the 2012 Olympic team in London. But thanks to confidence from faith and family, she doesn’t feel overwhelming pressure to win.

“It’s almost impossible, and I want to prove to people that it’s possible,” Shawn says. “I don’t have anything else to prove, but what if I could go one step farther?”

Three lessons my parents taught me

1. Home is a safe place

Rather than use their home life to talk about gymnastics, Shawn’s parents gave her a welcomed time-out.

“My parents’ unconditional support led to my success because I had that backing and not the pressure that so many kids face every day,” Shawn says. “I had a place to go to get away from it – home. They made it a place I always wanted to come back to.”

2. Don’t be afraid to be different

“Growing up, you’re always trying to fit in with the popular crowd and do what everyone else is doing,” Shawn says. “My parents told me to be my own person and do what I loved even if it was different. That taught me to have confidence in myself and who I was instead of finding someone else to rely on.”

3. Your worth is not in winning

“It’s not about the medal or the placement. Your worth is not determined by that. Faith has a lot to do with it – you’re giving it your all, and no matter what the placement, you’re still proud. Too many kids get caught up in determining their success or worth in the color they’re wearing rather than what they’ve worked for.””

by Andrea Bailey Willits on Monday, June 25, 2012

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Conversation Starter: Objection – Casual Commitment

Malachi 2:1-16

Honoring Your Commitments

Conversation Starters

How can you keep this conversation going at home? Try bouncing some of these questions around at the dinner table, as you’re driving your kids to school or an activity, or even while you’re shopping together:

For Preschoolers
Help a child glue two pieces of paper together. Ask what makes the paper stick together. Say that love makes people stick together. Give her a big hug and say, “I love you; I stick like glue.” Make a game of it this week – every time you pick him up from daycare, the nursery, school – hug one another and say together, “I love you; I stick like glue.”

For School-Age
Who are your best friends? What is it you really like about those friends? Do your friends ever hurt your feelings? What do they do that hurts your feelings? What do you think you need to do to keep from hurting your friends’ feelings?

For Students
What qualities do you most value in a friend? A boyfriend/girlfriend? As you think about getting married one of these days, which of those qualities will still be important to you? Which qualities do you think matter most to God? What do you think is the best way to find people who possess the qualities you think are really important?

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Parenting Teens Is Tough; LifeWay Offers Help

Parenting a teenager is terrifying!

“There’s no doubt about it,” said Mike Wakefield. “Even if the teenager is a great kid, it’s still absolutely terrifying to think about all the new skills a parent has to develop to navigate through those years.”

Wakefield leads the team that produces Parenting Teens, a relaunch of LifeWay’s popular Living with Teenagers magazine. The redesign of the magazine has been developed specifically to answer questions, offer advice and provide resource information to help parents be the primary spiritual developers in their families.

“I believe most Christian parents want to be the ones who teach and lead their teenagers; they just don’t know how,” he said.

“When we were redesigning this magazine, we looked at tons of other parenting publications,” he said. “We wanted this one to be different. We asked ourselves, ‘what can we do that would make a parent want to pick up this magazine instead of some of these others?’ What we discovered is that we (LifeWay) are the only ones who look at parenting teens from a Christian perspective. So, when we went to redesign the magazine, we really wanted to highlight that difference. We also wanted to help parents develop their own Christian walk, as well as offer practical advice. I think we have done that.”

Parenting Teens will be divided into three sections: “Know, Grow, Become.”

“We want to help parents know their teens, so we will give lots of information about teen culture and issues related specifically to adolescence,” Wakefield said. “We want them to grow as parents, which is the section where we focus on parenting skills and issues. And, we want to help them become more Christlike, so we’ve added a section specifically for a parent’s spiritual growth as an individual.”

Each issue of the monthly magazine will feature a “Voice of a Teen” column. A teen will write this column and address some struggle, such as the struggle to be perfect: perfect grades, perfect body, perfect talents, etc.

“On the perfection topic, we want the parents to understand their own attempt at perfection – and, yes, parents do that too – may be having a negative influence on their teens,” Wakefield said. “Hearing it straight from the teen will have an impact.”

Bundling option

While Parenting Teens will be available as an individual subscription, Wakefield said there is the option of bundling Parenting Teens with ec magazine, a monthly magazine for teens that offers challenging daily devotions and relevant feature articles designed to help students understand that their relationship with Christ should affect every part of their lives.

“Bundling these two magazines together can be a great benefit for the whole family,” Wakefield said. “The magazines will be aligned thematically to help each one build on the other. The articles won’t be the same, of course, but they will encourage discussion between parents and teens about what they’ve read.”

Parents who choose a bundle option will receive a 15-percent discount on the pair of magazines.

Good value for churches

Parenting Teens will offer four Bible study outlines in each issue of the magazine – for churches that have Sunday school or small groups for parents of teenagers.

“What youth minister doesn’t want to be a hero for the parents of his or her students?” Wakefield asked. “With this resource, he or she can provide a way for parents of youth to be discipled throughout the week. In this way, Parenting Teens is so much more that just a leisure reading or advice magazine.

“We want parents who have issues with their teens to know they are not alone, insane or bad parents,” Wakefield said with a laugh. “Parenting teens can be tough. We want to offer tools to make it a little easier.”

by Polly House on Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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Objection: Robotic Ritual

Scriptures: Malachi 1
Going Through the Motions

Family Connections

“My mom’s been serving leftovers for 30 years. Nobody knows what the original meal was.” Old joke told by anyone who’s never had to put a meal on the table 7 days a week.

Not many people, especially kids, like leftovers. But you can actually use those warmed-over dishes to teach spiritual lessons to your children! Next time your kids complain about leftovers, try this:

Preschoolers
Play patty-cake saying something like:

Patty-cake, Patty-cake, Thank You, God

Patty-cake, Patty-cake, For this food

Patty-cake, Patty-cake, Thank You God

Patty-cake, Patty-cake, You are good.

Then lead a prayer with: God is great (this keeps them remembering the greatness of God), God is good (this keeps them remembering God’s love). God I thank you for this (actually state the leftovers.)

(christianitytoday.com – see printout)

School-Age and Students
Ask why they don’t like leftovers. Then challenge the kids to consider how you all (include yourself) offer leftovers at work, school, and home. Then take it deeper by asking how people offer leftovers to God.

As you’re eating the meal, challenge children to list what God offers them new and fresh every day. Explore what you can offer God each day that is new and fresh.

If your budget allows, if they’ve participated positively in this dinner time discussion, reward their willingness to talk and eat leftovers with an ice cream cone.

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A Parent’s Primer on Internet Pornography

Parents,

You may think that you already have a good grip on this somewhat uncomfortable topic. As a youth development professional, I strongly encourage you to take a few short minutes to check out this simple article with plenty of optional additional resources. We want you to be equipped…

“The Internet, mobile devices, and other digital technologies combine to create a world in which children and teens no longer have to look for and find pornography. Now, pornography is in the mainstream and it finds them.

As parents called by God to nurture our children through childhood and into a spiritually healthy adulthood, we have the responsibility to be keenly aware of pornography’s presence, its compelling draw, and the impact it has on our kids. When it comes to pornography, what they see and experience now will not only shape them in the present, but will continue to influence them and their relationships for the rest of their lives. Consequently, we must be diligent in preparing our children to understand, process, and respond to this horribly fallen expression of God’s good gift of sexuality in ways that bring honor and glory to God.”

Read more from Walt Mueller’s article.

Phil Berry
Assistant Director, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys
www.ridgecrestcamps.com

Posted in Just For Parents | Tagged Camp Crestridge, Camp Parents, Camp Ridgecrest, parent articles, parent resources, Ridgecrest Summer Camps | Leave a reply

Conversation Starter: I Call on You

Psalm 86:1-13,15-16

because of God’s character, He will hear and respond to our prayers

Conversation Starters

How can you keep this conversation going at home? Try bouncing some of these questions around at the dinner table, as you’re driving your kids to school or an activity, or even while you’re shopping together:

For Preschoolers

• When you talk to God, how do you know He listens?

• Do you have any questions about God?

• What should our family pray for?

For School-Age

• Do you believe God hears our prayers?

• Why do you think you don’t always get everything you ask for in prayer?

• What should our family pray for?

• How often should we pray together?

For Students

• What kind of prayers do you think God listens to?

• Do you pray because you want to or because you have to? Do you think that makes a difference to God?

• How can I pray for you?

Posted in Just For Parents | Tagged Camp Crestridge, Camp Ridgecrest, Conversation Starters, parent resourses, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Talking to your kids | Leave a reply

Conversation Starters: Pray for Our Country

Tuesday is the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Monday, September 17, marks the 225th anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution. Each night this week, pray specifically for someone or something related to American freedoms, responsibilities, or challenges.

Sunday: Pray for your local fire and police departments, and any officers or firefighters you know personally.
Monday: Pray for American military personnel who are serving overseas and their families who are here.
Tuesday: Pray for missionaries who work in primarily Muslim countries. Check out IMB’s website www.lovingmuslims.org for additional helps.
Wednesday: Pray for your District’s Congressional Representatives and your state’s senators. For a complete listing, go to www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
Thursday: Pray for the President and Vice President.
Friday: Thank God for the freedom we have as American citizens. Ask God to help us make good decisions as a country.
Saturday: One of the freedoms the Constitution guarantees is freedom of religion. Pray for all pastors and church leaders (especially yours!) as they prepare for a full day of ministry tomorrow.

Posted in Just For Parents | Tagged Camp Crestridge, Camp Ridgecrest, Conversation Starters, parent resourses, Prayer, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, September 11th | Leave a reply

Finding the meaning of life

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Conversation Starter: Center of My Life

Colossians 3:5-10,14-15,17-21; 4:5-6

Christ-centered character, home, and witness

Conversation Starters

How can you keep this conversation going at home? Try bouncing some of these questions around at the dinner table, as you’re driving your kids to school or an activity, or even while you’re shopping together:

For Preschoolers

• How do you know Mommy and Daddy love you?

• How do you let Mommy and Daddy know you love them?

For Children

• What does it mean to obey your parents?

• When is it hardest for you to obey Mom or Dad?

• Why do you think God wants children to obey their parents?

• Who else should you obey besides Mom and Dad?

• Do you think parents are supposed to obey too? If so, whom?

For Students

• What do I do that exasperates you? (This question is only for the strong-hearted parent!)

• How can I be more encouraging to you?

• If you were a parent, how would you handle this specific situation that you and I have been dealing with?

Posted in Just For Parents | Tagged Camp Crestridge, Camp Ridgecrest, Conversation Starters, parent resourses, Parenting Teenagers, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Talking to your kids | Leave a reply