Family Ministries

Spring 2007: Parenting by Jogging

Spring 2007

Parenting by Jogging

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road…”

 (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

In an age of multitasking I’ve recently discovered a way to combine two vitally important tasks - exercise and parenting.  Shortly after Christmas I decided it was time to return to the discipline of jogging.  As I was preparing for my first run of the year we were dealing with some general sassiness and disrespect from our oldest son.  Instead of our usual methods of discipline I said, “Josh, put our shoes on, we’re going for a run.”

I expected some resistance or at least complaining, but he had his shoes and hoodie on before I could blink.  As we started down the road I knew the exercise would help him get some energy out, but I didn’t realize how effective a different setting would be for opening up dialogue.  We spent the next 20 minutes running and talking about what it means to honour your father and mother.

My son enjoyed the run so much that he asked if we could do it again, and we made a deal that we would do it every Wednesday when I came home from work.  Josh was so excited that as soon as we got home he drew a picture of two stick-men (him and me), and called it “Wednesday”.  That picture is on our fridge to remind us of the deal we made.

Over the past several weeks as our runs have gotten longer we’ve both gotten in better shape, and, while I don’t try to force the issue, these runs have provided numerous opportunities for meaningful conversations.  Sometimes I have something specific I want to talk about on the run, and sometimes I just see what comes up.  As simple as it sounds, it’s amazing how “walking along the road”, in our case running, has been a catalyst for spiritual discussions.

One of the main parenting lessons I’ve learned from these runs is the importance of giving individual attention to our kids.  Josh looks forward to these runs not because he likes running so much, but because we are spending one on one time together.  Our middle son, Ben, was feeling a little left out, and so we made a deal to do a weekly bike ride together.  Our daughter Hannah is not quite ready for either of these activities yet so I’m thinking of a weekly swimming date which will make it a parenting triathalon.

The point is that all of these basic, natural activities provide great daily opportunities to talk with our kids about what really matters in life. As an added bonus it doesn’t hurt to get in shape in the process.

Pastor Lee Francois

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