30 Ways To Strengthen Your FamilyНамуна

Create Family Time

We know the importance of maintaining a balanced diet for good physical health. A UCLA study shows that it’s just as crucial, for the sake of our mental and emotional health, to lead a balanced life.

And how do we restore balance to our frantic family lives? Make a point of injecting some downtime into it—heck, schedule it. Go for a walk—not a power walk but a slow one. Play a game together, preferably a board or card game with everyone sitting around the table interacting.

Realize, too, that not every activity must involve the whole group. Take that walk or play that game with one son or one daughter. Give everybody a turn. In time, you’ll find yourself having real conversations with the people who matter most. And don’t neglect your spouse! A regular date can really help strengthen your marriage.

It’s impossible to overemphasize the importance of having dinner together—sitting down, away from the television, as a group—as often as possible. The potential a family dinner affords to impart lessons in courtesy, hash out problems, or just have a good laugh is unmatched.

Reviving this balance is also crucial to one’s spiritual health. It’s all too easy, when every minute of our day is jam packed, to neglect church and daily prayer. Big mistake. Only by slowing down can we hope to really hear the voice of God. Taking a formal retreat occasionally is a fine idea, but we also need the mini-retreats that God uses to recharge our batteries when we take time to talk with and visit him.

If you’re feeling overscheduled, look at your family’s time and how it’s spent. Get together and discuss ways to pare down outside activities and make more time for each other. One fair way to take more control of family time is to set the number of activities each child can do in a school year. Instead of track, drama, tennis, football, soccer, and horseback riding for each child, leaving you the frazzled chauffeur struggling to fit everything in, let each child choose two or three activities for the year when school starts. And stick to it when the new seasons begin. In addition to lightening up your schedule, this method will help teach your children about priorities and time management.

It’s crucial that we make time for what is truly important, not merely so that we can fashion some pleasant memories, but so that we can raise our kids to soar above the toxic culture and to become the men and women God intends for them to be.

Mom and Dad, you are vital. The culture won’t tell you that, but the facts, your gut, and your kids’ lives testify to your power. Your opportunity to enjoy them when they’re small and to shape them when they become teens will disappear before your eyes.

Don’t just give your family things. Give yourself. You’ll get far more back than you can possibly imagine.