I took my three children camping this past weekend to south-central Utah. It was wonderful and strenuous! The daytime hours we enjoyed very much, but the night-time hours got very cold. What I had anticipated for the overnight low temperature was off by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperatures dipped into the 20’s.
In preparing for our early March campout, I had made sure my children each had a sleeping bag and warm blanket. I also brought along an extra sleeping bag to lay over the top of all three of them. Fortunately, they each slept through the night and were sufficiently warm. However, I had overlooked one thing in my preparation . . . warm bedding for myself! I thought a single sleeping bag would be sufficient. I found out otherwise! About 1 am, I woke up to relieve myself and found myself shivering uncontrollably. I knew I needed to warm up somehow. Not wanting to wake the children, or my in-laws who we were camping with, I got into my van and turned on the engine. After a couple minutes waiting for the cars heater to kick in, I remembered that I had brought along an emergency blanket. Knowing I couldn’t keep the van running all night, I decided to give the emergency blanket a try. After lining my sleeping bag with the emergency blanket (and nearly waking up everyone in camp with the crinkly noises), I crawled into my sleeping bag and hoped for the best. It did the trick! The emergency blanket provided enough insulation that I was able to sleep. The following day I was able to function and we had a really enjoyable day! I shudder to think what I would have needed to do had I not had that emergency blanket with me on this campout! If I wasn’t able to warm up in my sleeping bag, I would have been left with turning on the engine of the van periodically through the night to try and keep warm. The following day likely would’ve been ruined! This was a powerful reminder of how important preparation really is.
Like this recent camping experience provided for me, I strongly believe our children need opportunities to test their own preparation. This testing usually doesn’t occur in the digital or virtual realm. A video game where endless character respawning takes place, just doesn’t cut it. Our preparation is tested in the physical world and children need to experience this testing while they are young. Things as simple as learning to ride a bike or planting some garden vegetables provide opportunities to test and learn the principle of preparation. As children grow, physical activities such as team sports, hiking, camping, dancing, or public speaking (to name a few) provide testing needed to learn how to prepare for life’s challenges. So let’s be conscious of this need and make sure that the virtual realm does not take the place of needed growth experiences in the real, physical world.