30 Ways To Strengthen Your FamilySample

Write a Letter

It’s one thing to talk to your kids, but writing down your feelings and sharing the vision you have for their lives serves as a tangible reminder of how much you care. In this day of text messages, handwritten letters are rare. If you take the time to write down your thoughts, your children will take them seriously and will have something to hold in their hands and read over and over again. You will most likely create a treasure that they just might keep for the rest of their lives.

If you don’t think you are a gifted writer, please don’t let that stop you. Feel free to borrow ideas from others or to quote poetry or verses from relevant songs. Don’t let anything keep you from writing what might be the single most important letter of your life! Go to a quiet place and start by writing down bullet points or the first few things that come to your mind. Create draft after draft if you need to, and if it makes you more comfortable, ask a trusted friend to review your letter for you. Or you can ask a complete stranger: I’m more than happy to give you feedback if you would like. You can email me at Rebecca@30WaystoStrengthenYourFamily.com.

So what should your letter include? Here are a few thoughts to help you get started:

A clear statement of your love. This doesn’t have to be poetic, but it can be. However you choose to state it, your kids need to walk away from the letter knowing that you love them. Even the simple words “I love you” written on a line all by themselves will suffice. But you must say it very clearly, one way or another. Teens today report that what they crave more than anything else in the world is to be loved. And to be blunt, if they doubt your love for them, then no matter what else you do, you have failed.

Your vision statement for their future. Remember that vision statement you wrote in chapter 2? Why not share it in your letter?

A prayer for them. While I won’t share the entire contents of a letter I wrote to my children, I will include a small sample of how I used the words of another to help me express the prayer of my heart for my children. You might even want to include this in your letter to your own kids:

This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good.

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