Connect with your son through shared experiences to make significant memories.

What you need

• Select a big or small adventure to do with your son. An adventure is something creative and out of the ordinary. Examples: weekend fishing trip, hike with compass, road trip to cool destination, camping in the backyard, etc. It is less about the adventure and more about the experience fostering a connection.
• Consider letting your son help choose the adventure.
• Set a date on your calendar.
• Plan a fun adventure and think through how you will prompt meaningful conversation during the adventure.
• Optional: Purchase a gift or write a meaningful note to give to your son during your adventure such as a compass (to talk about God’s direction), a pocket knife, headlamp, etc.
• Find specific ideas in the book Raising a Modern Day Knight by Robert Lewis.

How to play

During the Adventure

1. Initiate meaningful conversation that is appropriate for the age of your son. This is the time for positive connection, so try to avoid issues that might come across as negative or that could create conflict. Use open-ended questions such as:
• Who do you enjoy hanging out with? Why?
• Tell me about someone you look up to.
• What two things can I pray about for you?
• If you had a super power, what would it be and why?

Listen to your son’s answers and ask more questions as he shares.

2. Choose a time during the adventure to affirm and encourage your son. Give specific examples of things that you see in him and give him a vision for how God might use that in his future. If you brought a gift or note, use this time to give it to your son as a way to bless him.

3. Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 16:13–14 together: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be in love.” Talk about how both you and your son can apply this verse to your lives.

4. Take at least one picture so that you can capture the memory and look back on your time together. Consider starting a journal of your father/son adventures.

Finish your adventure by brainstorming a list of future adventures you would like to experience together. Go ahead and start planning the next adventure and get it on the calendar.

© 2013 Inkling Innovations and Lydia Randall