52
Follow the Leader
Grab
Jump rope
Outdoor toys
Scooter or bike
Basketball
Wagon or yard cart
Drinks and snacks
Timer or stopwatch
Go
Set your timer or stopwatch for five minutes and begin your game of Follow the Leader. Dad starts out as leader, moving from one activity to the next. Perhaps you can jump rope ten times, bounce a basketball ten times, ride the scooter in a circle around the driveway, pull a wagon across the yard, swing from a tree branch three times, jump over rocks, and eat three potato chips. Be creative! See how many items in your yard you can jump over, run around, or crawl under. When the timer runs out, give your daughter a turn as the leader.
The same activities can also work as an obstacle course. Choose several activities to move through in a row. Time each other to see who can move through the course the fastest. Can your daughter jump rope, blow bubbles, spin a hula hoop, make a basket, run around the house, and bike to the end of the driveway faster than you?
Grow
It’s a lot of fun to follow someone in a game—you don’t know where they’ll take you next and sometimes their ideas are creative and hilarious.
It’s not always wise to follow people in real life, however. We need to make wise choices about whose example we follow and whose plans we go along with. Read these verses together:
Blessed is the person who does not
follow the advice of wicked people,
take the path of sinners,
or join the company of mockers.
Rather, he delights in the teachings of the LORD
and reflects on his teachings day and night. (Ps. 1:1–2 GW)
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor. 15:33)
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)
Together, make a list of the friends you have that bless you by pointing you to Christ. Thank God for these special people right now.
Thank you for giving us your Word to show us how to live. Thank you for giving us Christian friends to set a great example of following you. Please help us to make wise choices about who we admire and spend time with. Give us hearts that want to obey you and look like Jesus. Use us to encourage the people we care about to live for you in every way. Thanks that we don’t have to walk our Christian lives on our own! You are so good to us. Amen!