Olympics 2012

We had a blast watching the Olympics this year.  I've always enjoyed them, but this was the first year that our kids have been old enough to watch them with us, and that made them a lot more entertaining!  Madeline was especially enthralled with the Olympics, particularly gymnastics.  The first night she was asking us to build her a bar to swing on (aka the uneven bars) and was walking on the back of the couch for her balance beam routine.  Mike brought home a piece of wood he was needing to mount something with, and it quickly was turned into Maddie's balance beam instead, sending him back to Lowe's for another piece of wood.  Her balance beam, still sits in our basement even though the Olympics have been over for more than a week.

We tried a number of sports as a family throughout the weeks of the Olympics, soccer, volleyball, swimming, and diving. I hate I didn't get more footage, but below is some video I took of our kids try at gymnastics and track and field!

With everything we do as we family, we try to help our kids see what's happening n the world around them through the lens of Scripture.  The Olympics were no different. Watching the Olympics we of course saw people from all different nations, speaking all kinds of different languages,  which caused Madeline to ask a number of questions.  I think it was the first time she began to realize how BIG the world is, even though we have several people at church with different ethnicities and languages. So we used this as a valuable time to talk about the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and the origins of different languages and nations coming as God's judgement because of man's disobedience and wanting to do things on their own, apart from God. We talked a lot about how many of those nations don't have a Bible in their language, and many of the people have never heard the good news about Jesus.  We also talked about Revelation 5 and how God has promised to save people from all  nations and languages and will make all who trust in Christ into one Kingdom worshipping Him together.
Since Madeline has asked numerous times, if she can "do gymnastics like Gabby when I'm bigger."  I've told her it takes lots of hard work and sacrifice, so we will see :)  I also read during the Olympics a post on the Desiring God blog about Paul's reference to the Olympics in 1 Corinthians 9, and have been trying to encourage Madeline to "run" (or do flips in her case) for something far more precious than a gold medal, an eternity spent worshipping Christ!  If you want you can read the article here.

As much fun as the Olympics were, I'm glad to see it end.  We stayed up way too late, too many nights and I'm glad to be back in our normal routine.  We'll be anxiously awaiting Rio 2016, though by then it's hard to believe we will have a 8,7, and 5 year old!