7/9/07
Julie started this week with the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective Families" by Stephen R. Covey. This book will carry us thru the next 7 weeks.
I hope I can do Julie justice--she did an awesome job today getting us to think about what we really want out of Family Life and what we should be doing to make it happen.
According to the author, most families that consider themselves "Good Families" are on track 10% of the time and off track 90% of the time. Wow!! We need some work!!
What type of family culture do most of us want? We all agreed that we want a loving, Christ-centered, safe haven, supportive, productive, responsible, honest, ...family life.
We all have daily regrets and struggles with providing the above. To help us achieve this we can start with a Mission Statement for our families. This is not so easily done. The requirements of doing this sometimes get in the way...all family members have to participate, we have to make the time to do it, even if the all members agree to it we may still meet some resistance. Pilots do not fly without a flight plan....why would we not invest time in the planning of something so important to us?
We should be PROACTIVE!!
When we are stimulated to respond we should hit the "Pause Button" first..will our response be critical? comforting? tenderly teaching? We DO have a choice.
We should role model unconditional love for our children. We should deposit in their emotional bank accounts by giving our time, being patient and understanding instead of withdrawing with negativity and criticism. If you consistently only make withdrawals, then eventually you will lose the relationship altogether.
Our children want to know that we are there for them--no matter what--we should show acceptance..not rejection, understanding..not judgement, participation..not manipulation......

OK...My brain and hand eventually got WAY apart but be there next week for more of this topic.... we can all take something from this.

see ya Saturday night at Petersburg,

Michele =