215: How We Maintain, Grow, and Create Friendships As Parents of Young Children

Do we have friends outside of our family? Do we have church friends? Do we have community? If so, how do we allocate our time accordingly with friends and family? How do we protect our home, but still be a part of the community? Is there some hospitality linked in there? We have gotten these questions more and more since we have spoken on family. We are clearly advocates of family time. Our interaction with family, whether that be immediate family outside our home, in-laws, our children, and each other, are the highlights and the things that we choose to talk about on this channel. It might sound a little cloistered or people wonder how do we have friendships outside of those familial bonds. We thought it would be fun to share and go through a week/month and share the things that keep us engaged with our church community and local friends and how that looks like in the midst of our every day life. Our church has facilitated a lot of relational growth for us. I think there is a biblical obligation to the local church body. We are supposed to be there for one another, but I also think there needs to be wisdom for each individual and what that looks like for them, their capacity and bandwidth for their home. It’s about tending first to your primary commitments. You need to look first and foremost to your marriage and to the well-being of your children. We love everything we get to do right now. Our families get to visit and we are grateful for that. People are coming through town all the time. We get to stay in touch and have fun with them. We go on roadtrips to visit them as well. Our week in and week out friendships are so great! We are richly blessed by the friends in our life right now. God is really really gracious in that area. Mentioned in the podcast: - "Mom Friends: Finding Them, and Creating Time to Spend with Them" - https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com/blog/mom-friends-finding-them-and-creating-time-to-spend-with-them - Top 5 Tuesday Join our weekly email list to keep up to date with the highlights of what is going on in our family life. https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com/top-5-tuesday-newletter - Looking for more Now That We're A Family resources? We got 'em! Website: https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nowthatwereafamily/ OUR FAMILY MUSIC ACADEMY: https://www.voetbergmusicacademy.com Homeschool Course: https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com/homeschool For 15% off the course, use discount code: YTHOMESCHOOL Get it All Done Club: https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com/get-it-all-done-club Is your life just too complicated to ever feel peaceful? Check out Katie's Free Home Management Masterclass: https://www.nowthatwereafamily.com/get-it-all-done-club