Welcome back to Beyond the Pew. In this video, we’re going to be talking about ways we can take Jesus and make him a part of our family trips and our summer vacations, and there’s a lot of fun ways that we can do that.

I think the first thing we can think about is incorporating God into our transportation, so as we get from point A to our exotic destination. I know when I was little one of my favorite things to do was to pick which movies or books or toys or snacks I was going to get to take with me in the car for my 13 hour car ride to go visit my family. And I hope your kids do that, and that they get to pick which movies or which music or which books or podcasts that they want to listen to in the car. And I think in the middle of all that planning and all those fun activities, that there’s a way to make God a part of it.

So maybe as you get going in the car, you just take a moment to intercede and to ask God to bless you on your travels. You ask Him to help you have a safe journey. You tell your kids that, “Hey guys, we’re starting out on this road trip. We just want to ask God to be with us, to protect us, to keep us safe.” And you can ask God just like that plain everyday language to do that and to be with you, and then go around the car and have everybody say one intention for the trip or for the week, and then you could go around again and have everybody say something they’re thankful for and then that’s it. That might be the only thing you do that day, but you just prayed together as a family in the car.

There are also ways that as you’re playing games together as a family, I know we used to play like the alphabet game or we would count signs or things like that. We’ve also done games where we interview each other and ask each other questions and if you do that you can ask fun questions like if you could meet any celebrity who would you meet if you could ask them anything what would you ask them. And then you could say if you could ask God anything what would you ask him? And there again you’ve just incorporated God into your road trip.

There’s a ton of different ways that you can also bring Jesus into the activities throughout the day maybe you have a time in the car where you tell your kids, okay headphones out for the next hour and we’re going to let different people be DJ. And so people get to pick two or three songs that they want to listen to and then maybe when it’s your turn you pick a couple praise and worship songs. It’s your choice you got to pick whatever songs, and now your kids get to listen to that they don’t have to sing along they don’t even have to like it but they’re listening to these songs of praise as you’re driving. You can do the same thing with podcasts. You listen to a sports podcast that your son likes or a comedian podcast that your husband likes and then maybe you suggest that you want to listen to a Catholic Answers podcast.

There are also ways that you could say okay we’re going to pray a rosary together in the car, or we’re going to spend 15-20 minutes in quiet and you can read or sleep or pray. And you just suggest that to your kids. You can have conversations about the faith in your car. You could do a Bible study together, whatever it is that you feel like would fit into your family life or your prayer life as a family, even if you don’t have a prayer life as a family, this is an easy way you can use this time, either in the car or on the plane, to start that.

Another thing that’s fun to do that I enjoy doing while I travel, is to look up churches around the city where you’re going or around your destination. You need to go to Mass on Sunday anyway, so you as a family can look up and say okay let’s find a beautiful church that looks really neat or looks really interesting, and we’ll look up the mass times maybe we’ll see a little bit of the church’s history and then we’ll go there together as a family on Sunday. And so this shows your kids that even when we’re away from home, so even later on when you’re in college, we still go to Mass on Sunday. So it’s a good message to send them anyway and you get to do that together as a family on vacation.

One of the other really awesome things about going to Mass away from home, is that you get to see the universality of the church. You get to meet a lot of cool people, because they’ll be excited that you’re there because your visitors. And you can ask them, okay we’re from out of town, if there’s one thing we had to do or one place we had to eat, where should we go? And you get their local advice for free.

So these are just some of the ways that you can bring Jesus into your family travels. Know that we, at Ablaze, will be praying for you on your vacations and on your trips, that they would be times of safety, but they would also be times where you can grow closer together as a family and community and in love and grow stronger in your faith lives together. God bless