Cultivate a Sense of Family Identity

To see a video on this part of the Father’s Mandate, click here.

“Cultivate a sense of family identity.

A) Verbally encourage my children. When I’m excited about the family, the children are excited. “This is a great family!”

B) Know where I’m going with my family identity. Beautiful. Tight.”

Sometimes the simplest things done consistently - lead to the best results. Many times I am trying to come up with something to do as a family that creates a " wow " moment or I feel will be a big splash. However I am constantly reminded that some of the basic things we do consistently lead to memories and have many in the family wanting more.

Whether it is the long family dinner - sitting around the table and discussing the days events or planning someone's birthday meals and events for the day.

Whether it is the snack and family game night Friday evening after a long week of school and work.

Whether it is having a discussion around how our words spoken over others can have an amazing effect on the trajectory of their lives.

Whether is is camping and taking a couple of hours to cook and eat a meal over the hot coals of the camp fire using the cast iron skillet.

Whether it is finishing the day off in the back yard with an ice cream cone watching the sunset and dreaming about the future.

Whether it is donning matching T-shirts to head out for an all day hike in the mountains - as we identify via our " Trail names " on the hike.

All things that happen many times over in the week, month and year. If you want to build a trusting relationship with your children - start by cultivating attitudes that lead to a strong sense of family identity.

I cannot wait to do more of the above - let's go.

Rich Young