One of the greatest parenting joys is when your child lets you into their private world. What is the private world? Generally speaking, it is a special place where we all hold deeper thoughts, treasured memories, and feel the most vulnerable. It is the essence of who we are. The private world is what we share with our spouse and only our most trusted and closest friends. As our children begin to grow and become [...]
When we took our first parenting class, our kids were nearly 5 and 2 years old. Since then, we never stopped revisiting and reinvesting in the practical parenting principles we learned. Initially we were completely overwhelmed with all the things we wanted/needed to implement with our boys. We learned over the years that focusing on one or two concepts at a time was manageable and helped us to make the progress we desired with much [...]
Every other week the Howards, Shelly and Rich, and the Marrs, Lis and Dave, trade off writing a OneFamily Letter with the intent to nudge, influence, educate, support and, in small part, come alongside women and men who are hard at work in the job of life. On the whole, life can be…well, complicated. They don’t teach parenting, marriage, or being an adult in school. It is true that a small misconception of how “things [...]
Sometimes we can feel like we are winging it as parents. The demands and pressure of life can get so overwhelming that we can get sidetracked from those meaningful things our hearts desire - like being a good intentional parent. In desperation, when we often look for the one thing or a quick online resource to help us to put a “Band-Aid” on whatever issue of the day we’re dealing with in the moment. All [...]
You are teaching your children how to be – to act, to speak, to think. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. - Proverbs 23:7 As a Man Thinketh - James Allen Let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth but that which is edifying and ministers grace to the hearer. - Ephesians 4:29 We are programmable biologically to where the brain gets wired differently when we are bathed in [...]
Transforming and impacting families is at the heart of our mission with OneFamily! It’s about building an encouraging home environment where children and marriages are flourishing with everyone feeling emotionally and spiritually fulfilled in each other’s company. It becomes a legacy of love that can affect families for generations. This means equipping families with practical resources, encouraging them through the challenging days to persevere, and sustaining them in their marriage and parenting journey. https://youtu.be/hOae1j-CfDA [...]
Is your family characterized by having an attitude of gratitude? When creating family identity do you cultivate and teach gratitude? Among the many reasons we love the Holiday Season, Thanksgiving to Christmas, is that it provided us a wonderful opportunity to build our family identity through family traditions that encouraged Trevor and Alex’s hearts towards internalizing the virtue of gratitude. Family Identity Through Family Traditions Family identity is an anchor for you and your children. [...]
As much as we enjoyed Halloween, we were always glad when it was behind us. Sure, we enjoyed many aspects of trick or treating like the time a 4 year old Elvis impersonator came to the door and said, “Thank you. Thank you very much” in his deepest little voice. But, with all the fun and excitement, there is also a certain kind of craziness that is driven by the childhood narcotic – Candy. It’s [...]
“Ok, bud. Get on the chair and we’ll play a game that will show you something that is really, really important to Mommy and Daddy. It’s called Trust. Climb up there and I’ll show you.” Each of our 3 kids went through this exercise at around 4 or 5 years old. The barstool stands 3 feet off the ground, so the height is very intimidating. “Ok, put your hands by your sides and close your [...]
When our boys were younger, we overloaded and overwhelmed our lives by trying to take advantage of every opportunity life presented – School activities, Sports, Etc. We naively thought balance and getting less busy in our lives would somehow occur on its own; thinking we had plenty of time and life would get less overwhelming in the near future. Fortunately, we discovered that life’s balance doesn’t just happen on its own. So, we came up [...]