Some things I did this week with my siblings

One of my brothers LOVES playing legos. This week one of his amazing creations was a two-player game in which you had to try and knock your lego opponent over, using your own lego figure. I wish I had a picture, that would explain it better, but he tore it down to build something else before I could get a picture. Anyway, it was really fun. He kept winning at first, but soone enough I got the hang on it. ;-) The last round, both our guys fell off at the same time and we both started laughing. :-D



Another one of my brothers loves drawing things, not just on paper but also on the computer, using Paint. One morning we sat down together and each tried to draw a picture on Paint. He did waaay better than me. ;-) But it was still fun.

I also made a bracelet and necklace with my seven year old sister. I did take pictures, but I can't find my camera. Dang.

What are some things y'all did with your siblings this past week? Please comment and tell me. :-)

~Laura

Friday Guest post

Sweet Katie wrote this the other day about the sibling challenge and I thought it would be good to post it here. You can visit her at her blog here: Just One In a Million Faces
~Laura
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When I first heard about “The Sibling Challenge”, the idea excited me, I jumped right on board. After all, I did need to work on my relationships with my brothers. I'm pretty close to the eldest of them and very close to the youngest, but to the two middle boys, not so much.

Well, I tried at first, I tried fairly hard, took the middle boys on a walk, played a video game with the three oldest, that kind of thing, but it seemed to me that my brothers weren't interested in getting to know me, in fact, they seemed to just get more and more aggravating, so gradually, I started giving up, though I wasn't really willing to admit this to myself.

And now it's really occurred to me that to get know your siblings, it doesn't just take spending time with them, it takes spending time with God. And an attitude change.

The Sibling Challenge is a challenge that goes deeper than just getting to know your siblings, it's also about getting to know God, and yourself. The ride may not be pretty, and it certainly won't be easy, but it's worth it all the same.

And so, I'm gonna try again. And this time, I'll try harder to be patient, try to curb my anger. I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna love.

-Katie

Under construction

Please excuse the temporary mess! I'm just trying to fix the template. Wish me luck....

~Laura

Pray for your siblings!

I would like to encourage you all to pray for your siblings. Prayer is very powerful, [I'll be posting about it later on this week on my personal blog] and it is always good to pray not just for your siblings but with them. I've been trying to do that, at least with some of the older siblings I have [I really don't think my 2yo sister could pray with me, lol] and it's a neat experience.

Sadly, this must be short, but I do encourage you to take time to pray for your siblings. It's easy to pray for a sick friend, or just a friend in general, but what about your little brother, yeah, the on that put a bug in your bed today? Pray.

God bless,
~Laura

Using the fruit of the Spirit with your family.

First Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 8, tells us:

"Love is patient,love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

This is SO important to remember, everyday. It can also be helpful if, like me, you have a hot temper and you especially have a hot temper around my siblings. I want you to do something for me. Read the verses again, but instead of saying 'love', put your name.

"____ is patient, ___ is kind. ___ does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ___ is not rude, ____ is not self-seeking, ____ is not easily angered, ____ keeps no record of wrongs. ____ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ____ always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ____ never fails."

So maybe you don't have a bad temper like me, but maybe you are 'self-seeking' [selfish], or maybe you can be rude sometimes. Maybe you 'keep a record of wrongs', and seek revenge on your siblings for things they did to you.

Or maybe your perfect, in which case you don't need to read this. ;-)

Don't feel bad if you winced when reading the verses with your name. Everyone has a fault; it's human nature. But that doesn't mean you can keep doing wrong, it means that you need to work on fixing it. If you have a brother/sister that you are particularly close to, maybe you two could encourage each other when you see the other struggling.

For the rest of the week, take time to use the fruit of the Spirit on your family. I encourage you to go out of your way to help out, be kinder, spend time together. Twenty years from now, you may not still be in contact with your friends, but you will always have your siblings. It is so important to make a lasting relationship with them.

God bless!
~Laura

The plan of attack.

Oh my. I'm sorry I haven't updated in over a week, but I have been really sick. Talk about a good time to practice patience with your siblings!

Anyway, I wanted to lay out my 'plan of attack' for this blog. I will [Lord willing] be posting every Monday with an article or something. Then, every Friday, I hope to have a guest post from someone. If you want to write an article, please email me or leave a comment, and I will get back to you. Here are some things I would like to talk about on this blog:

- Things to do with your siblings. I'll probably be writing about this later.
- Ideas for family nights, e.g family movie night, family game night.
- Dealing with 'special' siblings. [siblings with Autism and other things]
- Do you have any ideas? Let me know!

I won't be posting tomorrow because we are probably going to be out of town all day. However, I do plan on getting a post or writing a post myself for Friday.

Until then!
~Laura

Welcome to the Sibling Challenge!

"Wait! Laura, what IS the 'Sibling Challenge? Do I really want to get involved in this?"

Well, the Sibling Challenge is an experiment right now. See, I really want to get to know my five brothers and 2 sisters better, so I made a challenge for myself. Seeing that I was not alone when it came to wanting to make siblings your friends, I decided to start the Sibling Challenge. As to wanting to join, I can't force you but I do encourage you to join me on the journey of making my siblings my best friends, not just people who happen to live with me and annoy me. ;-)

How do I join?
Leave a comment telling me you want to join. If you want, you can list your siblings and some things you plan to do with them. You can start any time, but I need to know who you are so I can add you to the list. You can also tell others about the Sibling Challenge by grabbing the button on the sidebar.
It might be a good idea to also tell your parents about this. ;-) Or you can just surprise them by suddenly getting along with your siblings...but I recommend that you tell them so that they are aware of what you are up to.
Because no two families are the same, I can't tell you exactly how to do it. But this is how I will be doing it. I have seven siblings [on earth, that is] so for each day of the week I will focus on a certain sibling. Now, if you only have one sibling, or more than seven, then your plan may be totally different than mine. That's okay!

Sound good so far? Awesome. But here's the catch. For the first week that you do this, give up on something else that you usually spend time doing. E.g, sports, spending time on the computer, talking with [non-sibling] friends, watching movies, whatever. Stick with it!

Why would anyone want to do this? Because they want siblings for friends! One thing that really inspired me for this was a question that a friend of mine posted on her blog.
"I've made a little observation. Why is it that it's considered a great thing for you and your best friend(s) to be like sisters, but it's considered a good thing for you and your sibling(s) to be best friends? I just find that rather strange."

The world and your peers don't expect you to be good friends with your siblings; the most they probably expect is for your to 'just get along' with each other. This is a challenge that will defy that, which is a good thing.

I leave you with this Bible verse, which might help you as you start:
Ephesians 4, 31-32:
31": Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:"32": And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

I know siblings can be annoying sometimes, especially if you are the oldest. But be ye kind, one to another.

Let me know if you want to join! And feel free to email me at: pioneer[dot]writer[at]gmail[dot]com if you have any questions. :-)

God bless,
~Laura