Work It

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great time with family and loved ones this year! I sure enjoyed my Thanksgiving break. It was so nice to be away from school for a few days and to just be able to relax with those I love. It was fun to be with all of my different aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents and to enjoy all of their different personalities.

This class has made me more aware of/pay more attention to the different types of family systems and how they interact. It was neat to watch how each individual family interacted with each other this weekend.

I have learned even more this week of what I want for my future family. After seeing all of us together preparing for Thanksgiving, I have realized that I want a family that WORKS TOGETHER.

I feel that when families work together, such a strong bond is created. There is more cooperation, trust, creating, complementing, relying, and loving when families take time to actually BE TOGETHER rather than everyone off doing their own things. The experiences provided when families work together will be so much more valuable than those spent on recreation. Think about the olden days, when the main work was farming. It was a family project. Dad, Mom, AND kids would all work on the farm and in the house TOGETHER as a family. Bonds were strong, and families were very close. They had to rely on each other and worked together for their family's success. They didn't expect just one member of the family to provide, but they all contributed in different ways.

I believe that these types of relationships can be a lot more difficult now-a-days. Fathers are typically gone at work for 60+ hours a week, children are sent to school for 6+ hours a day, and mothers are either working or at home with younger children or preparing for when everyone comes home. It would make sense that you must work extra hard to have strong relationships like in the past. Families can't just automatically be strengthened either, the relationships must be worked at. Even after school and work, work still needs to be done around the house. It never ends. I believe the greatest way to truly strengthen family relationships is to work TOGETHER on things throughout the home and really focus on each other. If we focus so much on just completing the task at hand rather than working on it with the family, many growing and learning opportunities with your children will be passed up.

I recently read an article found at: http://magazine.byu.edu/article/family-work/
This was SO GOOD and gave so many great ideas of how you can successfully work within your families. CHECK IT OUT... It explains things way better than I ever could!

May we take time to slow down our busy lives and focus on those who matter most. As we strive to strengthen our family relationships, there will be such an increase of peace and joy in our homes.
The way to success is WORK!