Why We Prioritize Family Vacations
There are 31 days in July, and for 20 of them, the Durso family was on vacation. Our first leg was in North Carolina, where we stayed with family. After a few days there, we road tripped up to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, stopping at some historical sites along the way (Appomattox, DC, Gettysburg). In Wellsboro we stayed at the house of a pastor who generously opened up his home while his family was away on Sabbatical. It was the longest vacation we’ve ever taken as a family, and now that I’m home to reflect on it, I am glad we did it. Here are some reasons I think it’s a good investment for our family.
Refreshment. Vacations would be empty if there was no meaningful work to get back to, and work becomes burdensome without times of rest. Recreation is no good without work, and work is no good without recreation. God established the world with rhythms of work and rest, and while the bulk of our lives should be good and meaningful work, it is wise to establish patterns of rest and recreation as well. God designed our bodies to sleep daily, he designed the week to include an entire day of rest, and in Israel, he established annual feasts where no work was allowed (Ex. 12:15-20, Lev. 23:34). I understand this is not an argument for travel, but it is a strong case for times of focused rest. It has been an experience of mine that, after some time away, I return to my work reenergized and refreshed, eager to continue in the work God has given to me. Sometimes it is wise to retreat in order to advance.
Relationships. It seems strange to talk about “building relationships” with your own family. Why would you need to do that? You already have relationships. But in my experience, extended time together strengthens and deepens our relationships. I feel like I get to know my kids better. We try to make vacation a special family time, and the sheer volume of unhurried hours spent together is an investment that I pray will pay dividends years into the future. We hope our children get a palpable sense that we delight in them, and that they sense this deep into their adulthood.
Experiences. I love giving our family new experiences. This vacation we got to do paddleboarding in Lake Norman, we got to visit Washington DC and see a bunch of monuments. We visited Appomattox (where the Civil War officially ended), Gettysburg, and Niagara Falls (awesome, literally). We crashed a Wednesday night Bible Study at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (and I got to introduce my family to Mark Dever). We visited Christ Church in Pennsylvania (and heard a wonderful exposition of Psalm 122). I hope these experiences give them a hunger to learn and grow and mature.
Memories. Over the years, we’ve developed family vacation traditions that help solidify happy memories for our family. We do the standard picture-taking, but we’ve tried to do more to create a sort of shared family history.
We buy a post card from the place we’ve visited, and on the last day of the trip we write down our favorite memories as a family.
We buy a deck of cards and a keychain from the place and store in them a family “treasure box.” We keep the postcards there too.
I make a playlist we’ll listen to while driving in the car, mostly made up of songs my kids haven’t heard before. The songs become associated with our vacation.
I pick a song, and then throughout the whole vacation, I video us doing funny choreography to the song while in different places. By the end of the trip, I’ve made a family music video (we now have several family music videos). All of this has, over time, created a store of happy memories that, I hope, bless our children.
Gratitude. Scripture says that every good gift is from our Father in heaven (James 1:17), and that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4-5). Ashley and I try to make a big deal of being thankful on vacation. Thankful for the time together and our family. Thankful for God’s beautiful creation. Thankful for s’mores and campfires and movie nights and creeks and our country and the church.
Outside of my relationship with Jesus Christ, my greatest joy is my family. My kids are growing up fast, and soon we will look back on these days. I don’t expect all parents to imitate Ashley and I with our quirky traditions. But we would encourage all parents to think of ways to invest in their children, enjoy them, delight in them, laugh with them, experience the world with them, teach them, and help them to see all of life in light of God’s abounding generosity. For us, this year, those 20 days in July were an attempt of ours to do that.
