5 ESSENTIALS TO BECOMING A HAPPY FAMILY

Family units tend to lack joy and happiness in our society. We have become a society inundated by social media and the too busy disease. This has led to the family unit becoming more of a roommate situation than a family relationship situation.

Let this post serve as a challenge for you to be an out of the box family. Dare to live outrageously and fully, bring your children along for the ride! In a world where individualism is rampant and there seems to be a push for doing away with real relationship it is a tremendous witness to be a 'happy family' with a solid foundation.

Here are FIVE ESSENTIALS TO HELP YOU BECOME A HAPPY FAMILY:

1. Remember to play together— all of you. When you are overworked as parents the whole family suffers and the consequence is less time for precious family memories.

Take time to get to know one another more than on a surface level. Make provision in whatever ways you can to make this happen.

Get away from the mundane and make those moments happen, even if it’s on occasion. This life is but a breath and you don’t want to reach the end of it having regret for not prioritizing what matters; loving one another fully, as God loves us.

2. Pray together - We believe in the life-giving act of prayer in our home. Prayer is never wasted and it cultivates an understanding of our need for grace and dependence on the Lord God. We teach our children to pray saying Please, Sorry, and Thank You in their prayers to God. We teach them to pray for others and through prayer we have witnessed God to great works as a result of our petitions. This gives them confidence that GOD HEARS THEM!

At mealtimes, we allow our children to bless the food. Often times they ask to do it before being asked. They are confident in their prayer life because praying is not something foreign to them. Therefore, when we are out and about, and they are asked to pray it is not something that frightens them. Even more, If they see someone in need of prayer they will stop and pray for them on the spot!

We try to emphasize how God is both a friend, and one to be feared and respected. We never stop encouraging them to listen to the Holy Spirit; To ask God for special ears to hear His voice.

Lastly, we often ask one another “How can I be praying for you? What is on your heart?” Even the youngest of children often have things pressing on their little heart that they like to share and open up about.

3. Laugh together - Every Friday night is family night in our home. We usually swap out between dinner and a movie night and playing board games. Some of our sweetest times laughing together happen here. We don’t want our kids to take life, or themselves, too seriously. Parents, we must learn to laugh at life ourselves in order to model this for our children. This is a gift we can give our children that they will carry into adulthood. This is a character quality that will impact their work life, their family life and even their overall ability to find joy in life for themselves during hard seasons!

4. Serve others and love them well - One of the things we do as a family is that we are always seeking to have an open-door policy in our home. It is no foreign thing to our children for us to have new friends or family come into our home on a regular basis as we seek to love and serve others.

Sometimes this involves going out of our comfort zone. Sometimes this involves welcoming in those that are not quite like us in appearance or even beliefs. I’m not sure how this is the trend, but in our home this often involves internationals or the poor. For example, immigrants or the homeless. We have a heart for those that are alone or that society sees as outcast and unlovable.

Opening our home to hosting others is a way we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Through this our children will grow up to be not so self-introspective and have the ability to consider others better than themselves. Not to mention this brings loads of joy into our lives through new relationships!

5. Be adventurous together - Don’t let the suggestion steal your joy. Some of you may be thinking, “But where we live there is NOTHING adventurous to do”. Or…. “Doing adventure with little ones is almost impossible. In fact, it isn’t even enjoyable to haul all the kids if they are small.”

However, I challenge you to change your thinking! Dare to climb boulders and play follow the leader in the wilderness together. Go into the woods and take a hike on a trail. Dare to drive up untraveled roads and find the sacred places. Teach your children travel to places that are different than their own culture. I promise you they will never forget these memories you make together!

Looking for something that is FREE? Try geocaching …… You can get started on these scavenger adventures with nothing but a phone or a GPS and a thirst for adventure.

Has my family mastered these? NO WAY….. But it IS a goal that we have and we are always pushing to make provision to have these 5 essentials happen. There are always creative ways to work around the challenges standing in the way of making these five essentials work for your family.

You see, as parents we’re not just raising children. We are investing in little people that will become adults, ambassadors for change in this broken / fallen world. We’re raising humans who will become Samaritans to the hurting and lonely and we’re raising justice-keepers.

Lastly, we are raising future Mothers and Fathers that will reproduce the things we pour into them now. Friends, we have a high calling! Raise your tribe well for all the world to see!