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SHAPING YOUR FAMILY’S FUTURE What You Can Do for Your Community


Developing intentional connections within your community has benefits that go far beyond helping you and your family develop a sense of belonging. As you strive to live an integrated life, community and family become so closely connected that it’s hard to think of them as separate. In fact, the more involved you become in your community, the more you will understand that this involvement is a crucial part of your family’s emotional, social, and spiritual formation. However, the connection between family and community is not a one-way deal. Just as families need the community, the community needs families. Being aware of the community and turning our attention to what is happening there, as well as paying attention to what is happening in our family, makes us other-centered. With a focus on our neighbors’ needs and the situations they face, we turn attention away from ourselves. And the good thing about being other-centered is that when we are, we keep our own problems in perspective. In doing so, we gain a more balanced view of our family.


Family Culture


5 • ENLARGING THE CIRCLE


What a family does with its time, energy, and money communicates the family’s values to children. It tells children what their parents believe to be important and what they believe to be unnecessary. Author Tim Stafford talks about family culture and the way it shapes the character of the members of the family. He considers this concept different from family traditions. Family culture is simply the particular way you do things in your family—everything from how you celebrate the New Year to how you make lunch.... Culture is habitual ways of life transmitting values into practical living. (Stafford 2004, 15–16, 19) Stafford’s point is that the best way to instill values in our children is


to create a family culture that is reflective of those values. Step one is to identify these values. Once you’ve done that, consider practices that will help you instill these values in your kids. Stafford offers these suggestions based on the Bible and God’s desire for how we are to live. To see a complete list of Stafford’s suggestions, click the button.


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Stafford’s Suggestions


The good thing about being other-centered is that when we are, we keep our own problems in perspective.


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