How Will You Invest Your Summer?

May 24th, 2026
by Heidi Drake

How will you INVEST your summer?

Quick answer: The academic "summer slide" has a spiritual cousin: families lose ground on the rhythms of faith when the school year's structure disappears. The fix is to invest the summer rather than just spend it. With a little planning and seven simple investments - a schedule, a Bible-reading rhythm (try the SOAP method), gratitude practice, Scripture memory, serving as a family, family dinner three-to-four nights a week, and a bookshelf of trustworthy resources - you can use the slower months to build the habits that will carry your family into the school year stronger than you left it.

We all hear about the summer slide academically … does that translate spiritually? Summer is actually a great time to start those new habits or work towards those goals you’ve been thinking about! With intention, you can take the relaxed pace of summer to set your family on a new trajectory… or at least add one new positive routine!

Are there any goals or patterns you’d like to see in yourself and your family?
- Bible reading, family time, regular prayer, hospitality, family devotions, serving others, Scripture memory, creative generosity …

Remember learning about compounding interest and exponential growth? The growth of an investment is a function of time and consistent deposits. We used to live in a microwave society … now we’re in a “click” culture. With a click you have instant information, connection, or an entire 5 paragraph English paper! Unfortunately, personal and spiritual growth don’t happen that fast. Consistent deposits + Time = Growth.

So rather than spending your summer, invest your summer!

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
- Benjamin Franklin

Eyes Up

Remember, remind, rinse, & repeat what our ultimate goal & purpose is for parenting!
According to Ephesians 6:4, we are to bring up our children in the fear of the LORD. Deuteronomy 6 tells us we are to teach & observe all the commands of the LORD so that our children and our children's children will fear the LORD! The ultimate command is to "Love the Lord our God will all our heart, soul, mind, & strength.

The urgent will always replace the important if we are not intentional. There will always be a spill to clean up, a fight to break up, homework, practices, games, recitals, dinner to cook, snacks to prep, teeth to brush, fingernails to clip, hair to do, ... so really, how important is family time, reading the Bible, prayer, community, serving others?? We've got to draw some lines!

If we're remembering our ultimate purpose (which isn't to produce a genius, the next LaBron James, or Mozart), we’ll be more likely to make choices with lasting, eternal significance.

Rhythms & Habits (thoughts taken from "Habits of the Household")

Our brain loves ruts. So whatever we practice goes deep into our basal ganglia & will become our default. As adults, we can tie our kids' shoes while helping them solve their math question. On the flip side, try asking your 5 year old what their name is while they are tying their shoe. Every ounce of focus is wrapped up in maneuvering these laces to somehow emerge as a bow!
So we need to choose to form habits that lead to our desired goals. Our heart follows our habits.

7 Simple Investment Ideas::

Schedule a time to plan & prep for investing your summer!
“An hour of planning can save 10 hours of doing.” - Dale Carnegie

1. Pray together - Go beyond “Thank you for this day and bless our food”. Try walking through the PRAYER acronym to encourage thoughtful and intentional conversation with God.

2. Read the Bible … individually and as a family. The best gift you can give your child is the ability to read God's word for themselves! Nothing fancy needed. There are plenty of great devotionals out there (see attached resource list) but really all you need is a Bible. Pick a book of the Bible (the Gospel of John is a great place to start!)
You can use the SOAP note method:
S - Scripture. Read a chapter or a passage.
O - Observation. Make general observations like who, what, when, where, why. What does this say about God? What does this say about humans/me?
A - Application- What should do in light of what we learned?
P - Prayer- Pray about it!

3. Gratitude - this is a buzz word. Science is finally catching up to what God has told us through His word for thousands of years … “with thanksgiving”, “give thanks” is used almost 150 times in the Bible. Gratitude changes our attitudes. It releases all sorts of endorphins and mood improving neurotransmitters, reduces cortisol, and can literally rewire our neural pathways! So, at breakfast or dinner have everyone share 5 things they are grateful for. Challenge your kids to write 1 card a week to thank someone (teachers, friends, etc).

4. Family Time! All the extracurriculars often steal family time. Take it back this summer! Schedule a weekly game night. Let the kids help plan & budget for a trip - whether out of town or just a staycation.

5. Scripture memory - pick a handful of verses you’d like to learn and meditate on as a family. Write them on mirrors, sticky notes in the car, practice at dinner, and maybe reward whoever learns the verse - God rewards us so we can too!

6. Serve together! Find practical ways to live out your faith. If your faith is never put into practice, and in ways your kids can tangibly see/understand, it will seem irrelevant. Things like practicing hospitality, generosity, bringing food to someone in need, helping an elderly neighbor with their yard or rolling in their trash cans…

7. Family dinner - Set a goal of at least 3-4 times a week! This is sacred time. Family dinner should be a time the family can let their guard down. Share how their day really was. Know that mom & dad & siblings are present and there for each other.

Resources:

Foundations for Kids: A 260-Day Bible Reading Plan for Kids
Habits of the Household by Justin Earley
RightNow Media: Don't miss this FREE resource available to our Christchurch Miami families. RightNow Media offers hundreds of kids’ shows, movies and songs that are engaging, fun, and best of all, gospel-centered!
FamilyLife Today podcast - engaging and relevant topics that help families grow together with Jesus while pursuing the relationships that matter most
Weekend to Remember marriage retreat by FamilyLife

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the "spiritual summer slide"?

The "summer slide" is the educational term for the ground kids lose academically over the long break - reading levels dip, math fluency softens, study habits dissolve. The spiritual version is the same dynamic applied to faith: when the structure of the school year evaporates, the rhythms that anchored a family's faith life (Bible reading, prayer, weekly worship, Scripture memory, serving together) tend to slide too. The good news is that summer's looser pace also makes it the easiest season of the year to start new spiritual rhythms, not just lose old ones.

What does it mean to "invest" your summer instead of "spend" it?

Heidi's framing borrows from compounding interest. Personal and spiritual growth, like compound interest, is a function of time plus consistent deposits. We live in a click culture that promises instant results - instant information, instant connection, an instant five-paragraph English paper - but the things that actually shape a soul don't move at click speed. To spend your summer is to let the days run out the way the bank account runs out: small, untracked withdrawals until it's August and there's nothing left. To invest your summer is to put small, repeated deposits into something that compounds - a Bible-reading habit, a family dinner rhythm, a Scripture-memory ritual - and let time do its work.

What is the SOAP method of Bible study?

SOAP is a four-step framework for reading the Bible with your kids (or for yourself) that makes Scripture stick. It stands for: S - Scripture (read a chapter or a passage), O - Observation (the basic who/what/when/where - what does this say about God? What does this say about us?), A - Application (what should I do in light of what we just learned?), and P - Prayer (pray about it). Start in the Gospel of John if you've never done this with kids before - it's narrative, it's about Jesus, and it pulls everyone in. The best gift you can give a child, Heidi writes, is the ability to read God's Word for themselves.

How can a Christian family practice gratitude with kids?

Gratitude is a buzz word in wellness culture, but the Bible got there first - variations of "give thanks" and "with thanksgiving" appear close to 150 times in Scripture. Modern neuroscience now confirms what Scripture taught: gratitude releases endorphins and mood-improving neurotransmitters, lowers cortisol, and can literally rewire neural pathways over time. Practically, that means a family practice as simple as a daily "what are you grateful for?" round at breakfast or bedtime is doing both spiritual and biological work. Kids learn the language of thanks by hearing parents speak it out loud.

What are good Christian family habits for the summer?

Heidi's "7 simple investment ideas" make a strong starter list: (1) Schedule a planning hour at the start of the summer - Dale Carnegie's line "an hour of planning can save ten hours of doing" applies. (2) Family Bible reading using the SOAP method. (3) Gratitude practiced out loud daily. (4) A family prayer rhythm - short, regular, age-appropriate. (5) Scripture memory - practice at dinner, even reward the kid who lands the verse first (God rewards us, so we can too). (6) Serve together - hospitality, generosity, bringing food to a neighbor, helping an elderly friend with their yard or their trash cans (faith that's never put into practice in ways kids can see will feel irrelevant to them). (7) Family dinner three to four nights a week - sacred, low-guard time where everyone gets to share how the day really was.

What does the Bible say about parenting and raising kids?

Ephesians 6:4 is the key text: parents are charged with bringing up our children "in the fear and admonition of the LORD." The Bible's vision of parenting isn't producing the next Mozart, the next LeBron James, or the next academic prodigy - those are good gifts when they come, but they aren't the goal. The goal is raising children who know, love, and follow Jesus into adulthood. When parents anchor their decisions in that ultimate purpose, the daily noise - the spills, the homework, the practices, the recitals - gets easier to triage, and the things that matter eternally (family time, the Bible, prayer, community, serving others) actually make it onto the calendar.

What books and resources does Christchurch Miami recommend for families?

Heidi's recommended resource list for the summer: Foundations for Kids: A 260-Day Bible Reading Plan for Kids - a year-long Bible journey paced for children; Habits of the Household by Justin Earley - the book that frames Heidi's "rhythms and ruts" thinking; RightNow Media - a free streaming library for the whole family (hundreds of kids' shows, movies, and worship songs), available to every Christchurch Miami family at no cost; the FamilyLife Today podcast - practical, gospel-centered conversations on marriage and parenting; and the Weekend to Remember marriage retreat from FamilyLife - for parents who want to invest in the marriage at the center of the home.