Last summer I hand-wrote a pretty lofty, but doable list and taped it on the front of my refrigerator. It was our summer bucket list.

My daughters are at this great age where it’s very easy to take them places. At the beach they carry their own bags, at the pool they can swim with supervision but not constant helicoptering, and at the regional park they can hike and walk without needing to be carried.  This school-aged independence has made for super active {read super-fun and super-exhausting} summers in the last year or two.

Last summer’s bucket list had about 35 activities on it and they ranged from the exciting to the normal. And I think by Labor Day we had ticked off nearly all of them.

Go to Art Camp

Go on a nature walk at the nature center.

Collect seashells at the beach

Play-date with Audrey and Amelia

Pack a picnic and take it to the park

An “I’m-bored” gets met with “Let’s-pick-something-from-the-bucket-list.” So the days we’re all tempted to play video games and eat chocolate covered pretzels turn into days we play tag in a field. We do things that are a little outside of our comfortable zone and we all end up loving it.

School is nearly out for us and I’m thinking about what things I want to include on a summer bucket list for my almost-first-grader and my almost-fifth-grader this year.

Then I thought: What would a Mom-bucket list look like?

What if we, as moms and dads, as women, married or unmarried, as daughters of the Kingdom, created bucket lists for ourselves.

We might choose things that put us a bit out of our comfortable places, that take us up off the couch, that let us interact with people and in places that we wouldn’t normally be. We could create “bucket lists” that help further the Kingdom and help reach out with love and grace to others. What if we…

Invite the next door neighbors over for a BBQ {You know – the ones we never talk to?}.

Volunteer a Saturday and do errands for an older couple in the community.

Sign up to mentor a pregnant teen or an at-risk child in our town.

Write our sponsor child several times before the summer is over (or sign up to sponsor one!)

Drive someone somewhere who needs a ride.

Memorize a poem or a chapter of the Bible.

Researched an organization we were always curious about.

If we blog, write about your current struggles (with grace) rather than stuff we’ve already overcome.

Begin the thing we’ve been waiting to do {adoption process, writing a book, starting your business)

The list doesn’t have to be long but it should be slightly different than what you normally do, a bit uncomfortable even. Let us come into this brilliant summer with others on our mind and with hearts open to give and to love.

Add your own: What is something you can do this summer to a.) get out of your comfort zone and b.) share love with someone else?

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