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.  [...]

Zig Ziglar said children spell love T-I-M-E.  We remember how hard it was when our boys were young, to carve out time for them as we juggled work, housework, working out, errands, quiet time, kids’ activities and the list goes on.  We were doing a lot of things with and for our kids, but the truth is that’s not the same as giving them time. During this COVID time and as we prepare for the [...]

Dinnertime discussions - If we were to list the things that made our family so connected, dinner time conversations would be near the top. Rich and Shelly wrote on this topic (here) which is worth a re-read. Our take on this critical family engagement opportunity has brought back many great memories. Dinner time was a priority, particularly Sunday night. Although occasionally Dave was working into nighttime activities during the week, he made it a priority [...]

There is a significant link between the moral education of children and engaging whole brain learning that leads to greater emotional Intelligence and self-regulation. Raising morally responsive children can be a complex and challenging job, but it will not happen without intentionality on the part of mom and dad.   To be intentional means you make the moral education of your children a priority by setting goals, establishing standards and a proactive plan. Most of us [...]

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. - Reinhold Niebuhr   These are troubled times. Some families have been hit hard, some less so, and some even harder. If we look at economics alone, money is like oxygen, how do people react when deprived of it for any length of time? It’s completely understandable that [...]

We love this letter from our friends the Carter family. It speaks to the everyday challenges and obstacles we face as parents; that it is an ongoing journey which also takes ongoing equipping and encouragement to sustain us in those transitional seasons of life! Dear Journal, Kash and I reached a low point in our relationship yesterday. I screamed “shut up!” at him, which shocked him, and the littles. And hours later, he repeated it [...]

What does it mean to be a Marr? This is one of the most important questions we faced as a young family. Being a Marr was not a question we contemplated walking down the aisle. For the two of us growing up in different cultures, Lis in Sweden and Dave in California, it’s interesting that family identity wasn’t one of the topics either of us encountered at the dinner table. But in raising our three [...]

Kids need their parents to lead them well.  We do so by teaching them practically “how” to do things and morally “why” to do them in order to shape their character and prepare them for adulthood.  Yet our leadership role can feel challenged as today’s kids have more information than ever before at their fingertips.  Current studies tell us that many Generation Z kids (kids born since 1997 to now) don’t ask Mom and Dad [...]

Here are 5 ingredients to consider as you cook up ways to improve your marriage. We say ingredients as if to a delicious meal because each plays a role in the overall experience – none standing alone, each interacting to enhance the whole. There is no priority among these elements as circumstances could make a case for the emphasis of any element over the others. Yet each flavor adds a spice that truly makes a five-star meal. [...]