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Whatever it looks like for you, we are wired to live, love, learn and grow in a family. Love in a family is intimate, complicated, messy, glorious, and at times, heartbreaking.
Families thrive when love is freely given and gladly received. When it’s withheld, relationships wither and die.
Brené Brown writes, “A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all women, men, and children. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong.”
Family looks different for everyone, and biology alone doesn’t define family bonds.
Learning to love well is our highest calling in life, with the power to change the destiny of future generations.
Stop. Breathe. Think about how you can share your love today with those you call family.
KEY THOUGHT
Learning to love well is our highest calling in life.
How can I be more vulnerable with those I love?
How can I upgrade my ability to love others?
Gratitude is a secret weapon for your family. Why? Because thankfulness is the gateway to joy!
Family doesn’t have to be a matter of biology. To quote best-selling author Richard Bach, “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
Cultivating gratitude as a daily practice changes the way we see the world. As you notice beauty in the ordinary moments with your family, joy will grow until it overflows.
Social researcher, Brené Brown, found that “Joy, collected over time, fuels resilience.”
When was the last time you collected joy with your family? Taking time to be thankful today will reap benefits tomorrow and into the future.
Stop. Breathe. Who are you thankful for in your family? How can you celebrate them today?
KEY THOUGHT
Joy, collected over time, fuels resilience.
Do I bring joy into daily interactions with my family?
How can I develop an atmosphere of joy so contagious that my family experience it?
Peace. We crave it for ourselves and those we love, but it can be elusive where we need it most.
So what can you do when peace feels out of reach? You can choose to be a person of peace in your family. You can become a peacemaker.
You are a peacemaker when you choose to hold your tongue rather than lash out in anger, even when it’s justified. Peace comes when you encourage instead of criticising or speak gently rather than raise your voice.
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”—Mother Teresa
What does peace look like and feel like in your house? Maybe it involves surrendering how we imagined family would look and loving the people in front of us.
Stop. Breathe. Choose to step into peace and become a person of peace for those you love.
KEY THOUGHT
You can choose to be a person of peace in your family.
How can I radiate peace to my family?
How can I help my family step into a place of peace?
How many times a day do we lose patience? How often are we patient all day – only to lose it with our family?
It’s said that patience is the companion of wisdom. But more than that, patience is a precursor for peace. If we want peace for our families, patience is indispensable. Without patience and understanding – peace will evaporate like mist in the sun.
The secret is that patience isn’t a one-off decision; it’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of engaging with ourselves and the world around us.
Gandhi said it beautifully, “If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the blackest storm.”
Patience takes time and energy to cultivate, but the fruit will be worth the work.
Stop. Breathe in deeply. Let wisdom and understanding give you patience and bring you and your family peace.
KEY THOUGHT
Patience isn’t a one-off decision; it’s a lifestyle.
Do I allow patience to prevail in trying circumstances?
How can I develop and encourage patience as a currency in my family?
Kindness is a superpower. It can brighten the darkest day and pull us back from the brink of despair. Have you ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness? How did it make you feel?
Kindness transforms the atmosphere of the giver and receiver. You can’t be kind towards another without it coming back to you. Family is a brilliant place to practise kindness and plan acts of kindness for others. And it’s fun!
Mother Teresa said, “kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
In uncertain times, we can make kindness a certainty. Making kindness a priority in life helps make the world a better place.
Stop. Breathe. Choose to be the light in someone’s darkness today.
KEY THOUGHT
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”—Mother Teresa
How can I develop a foundation of kindness in my family?
What’s the best way to demonstrate kindness to those I love?
What does it mean to be good? How can we be an expression of goodness to our families?
Scottish minister and author James Hamilton said, “Goodness is love in action, love with its hand to the plough, love with the burden on its back, love following his footsteps who went about continually doing good.”
When our efforts come from a heart of love, goodness and kindness flow. Imagine if we took the time to invest love in our families in the same way we invest in our work or screen time.
Henry David Thoreau said, “Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”
In a disconnected world crying out for connection, being good to one another is needed like never before.
Stop. Breathe. Think of one way that you be an expression of good in your family today.
KEY THOUGHT
Goodness never fails, and being good to one another is needed like never before.
Do I believe I’m worthy of receiving goodness; from myself and others?
What’s a practical way I can show goodness to my family every day?
Mother Teresa said, “Be faithful in the small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
Faithfulness through thick and thin is a heart cry of humanity. Loyalty and devotion bring safety and security. When we know others have our back, we can soar.
Unfaithfulness produces anxiety, fear, and self-preservation. We live in a constant state of fight or flight, waiting for the boom to fall. It’s exhausting.
We can’t control others’ actions, but we can decide to act faithfully towards our family, friends, and co-workers. What does that look like? It’s about being faithful to our word. Faithful to keep a confidence shared by a friend.
If we want faithfulness, we must act faithfully.
What would happen in our families, friendships, and workplaces if we put faithfulness on the table?
Stop. Breathe. Take a moment to think of how you can express faithfulness in your family.
KEY THOUGHT
Loyalty and devotion bring safety and security.
Do I believe that I am worthy of others being faithful to me?
How can I assure my family I can be relied upon consistently?
Is gentleness a lost art? In a world telling us to demand our rights, gentleness seems counter-intuitive.
So, why choose it? What harvest is reaped when we choose the way of gentleness?
It’s been observed that “A gentle answer quiets anger, but a harsh one stirs it up.”
Gentleness means we tread softly and carefully in the lives of others. We value them, resisting the urge to bulldoze. We treat people as we would want to be treated. When delivering a rebuke, gentleness addresses the behaviour and never makes it about a person’s worth.
Joyce Meyer says, “Jesus never mistreated anyone just because they mistreated him. He confronted them in a spirit of gentleness and then continued to love them.”
Stop. Breathe. Think about who you can share the gift of gentleness with this week.
KEY THOUGHT
Gentleness means we tread softly and carefully in the lives of others.
How softly and carefully do I tread in the inner part of my world?
How can I develop gentleness as a default behaviour in my family?
We live in a world of instant gratification, where self-control feels like a relic from a bygone era – before online shopping, UberEATS, and Spotify.
Why, in our impulsive world, should we value self-control?
Abraham Lincoln said, “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.”
Self-control increases the value of whatever we’re working towards. When something comes with no effort – we subconsciously value it less.
But what if it’s more? What if self-control is about loving others?
Self-control is a loving response to our spouse when a harsh word is easier. It’s opening the door for a friend, allowing them to enter first.
Self-control teaches us that we’re not the centre of the universe while reaffirming our connectedness.
Stop. Breathe. How can you love your family by demonstrating self-control?
KEY THOUGHT
Self-control teaches us that we’re not the centre of the universe while reaffirming our connectedness.
How well do I express self-control?
How do my family and I engage with self-control in our decision-making?
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