Campfire Pentecost

Spring always reintroduces two important things back into my life—hot dogs and campfires.

I love sitting outside on a cool night, listening to a crackling fire while, roasting hot dogs. Living in the Midwest, there’s nothing more exciting than the return of spring after a long cold winter.

As a parent, I cherish spring. It brings ample opportunities to get the kids out of the house. I can send my children outside to play or do chores—something that’s very hard to do when it’s zero degrees outside.

I also love spring because we can have campfires in our backyard. The first week of sixty-degree days this year, we cooked hot dogs over an open fire three days in a row.

It was heaven on earth.

In my opinion, nothing beats a well-cooked partially blackened hot dog cooked over a campfire. My children share this fascination, so it’s very easy to convince them to eat outside.

As much fun as this experience is, it also creates moldable moments in the life of my family. An open fire is a great opportunity to pull my kids away from technology, television, and other distraction. It gives me a chance to talk one-on-one with them about life.

A campfire provides excellent teaching opportunities about Scripture. The firelight can represent the light of Christ in a dark and lost world. You can teach your child about the time the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, resting upon them like tongues of fire, but they didn’t get burned. Or you can teach my personal favorite—heaping coals of love.

I love to connect the hot coals of a fire to Proverbs 25:22. The passage talks about showing kindness and love to your enemy. It says that when you do so, you heap burning coals on your enemy’s head.  What a great picture of love, mercy, and grace. It is also a powerful picture of what God’s love looks like in our world. This is such an important lesson to teach our children.

Feel free to utilize your next campfire to instruct your child in the Lord and help draw them closer to Christ, all while eating a delicious all-beef frank.