{Day Four} :: Family First

Growing up I was a pastor's kid. But not just any pastor's kid. I was the youth pastor's daughter.

For as long as I can remember, there were senior high students coming and going from our house. As a little kid I thought I was cool when my parents would let me stay up a bit later to say hi to them. It was kind of like having 100+ (and sometimes 200 or 300) brothers and sisters. And they were different every year. 

So you can see - with everyone constantly around, Dad going on trips with the students, and Mom leading a small group or helping in any way she could - how it would have been easy for my brother and me to feel insignificant, unimportant, invisible. It might have even been understandable.

But that never happened. In our house, family came first. And Dad made sure we knew it.

No matter what was going on, he always found time for my ballet class' parent observation days and my Nutcracker performances. He took me out on dates (more on that later) when I was little. He gave me a hug every morning when I was finally in high school and going on trips with him - and I never cared who saw. During my senior year, he made time for coffee at Starbucks every Wednesday morning, and before I graduated, we spent a day together learning to do something new - snowboarding.

He coached my brother's club soccer team for years (my brother was a great soccer player). One year when practices conflicted with a freshman guys' small group Dad was teaching, Dad made the greatest public announcement of his priorities I've ever seen.

He wrote a letter to the parents explaining he wouldn't be able to teach their sons for a little while because he wanted to be with his own.

Even with all those other kids around, I never for a day in my life doubted our value to my dad. 

Is your family that important to you? Do they know it? Or are they left to wonder where they stand on your list of priorities?

If you want kids confident in their significance - or a wife or husband, for that matter - they need to know without a shadow of a doubt they are most important in your life. And they need to see that others know it, too.

Family first. No matter what. All the time.

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This is part of a 31 days series on lessons I learned from my family. Read the first three here.