Family – Strength United – Day 9 {Intentional Parenting}

Welcome – we are on day nine of the 10 Days of Intentional Parenting series. To go to day one click awake. 

Those are my kids pictured below. All seven of them. They’re fabulous kids – they’re fun, they laugh, they listen, they’re well-mannered, and of course, they have their times of fighting.

It’s not my turn to do the dishes.
He took my toy.
She’s talking mean to me.
I don’t want to clean – they made the mess.
He called me a bully.

It’s part of childhood, I guess. However, despite disagreements, and such, in our home, we’ve made and established a rule. It’s a rule that guards against resentment, bitterness, and the passive nature to withdraw. It means working things out, talking it over, sitting at the dinner table, and learning to guard your relationships at home.

Family is forever. Family first.

I remember a time when all three of the older girls were sitting at the table and I was in our living room reading. I looked over at them, watched them as they talked, and was simply blessed by observing their interactions. Then it hit me again- they are forever linked. Friends may come and go, but family, those three girls sitting at the table, that is a for life relationship. One to be guarded. Nourished. Cultivated.

I told them that when they’re in their seventies that I want, and I pray that they will have as much joy being in each other’s company as they do now. They are building the roots of relationship right now, in my home, every single day.

But, in order for that to happen a focus in my family needs to be intentionally on family.

That means reclaiming family.

It means fighting for family.
It means putting family first.
It means being intentional about carving out family times.
It means saying no to things that our world says is okay.
It means putting away the media and being engaged.

Our culture is against family.

Look around. Look at media. Look at what our children are being exposed to – they’re being shown television shows where the parents are made to look like idiots. They’re seeing parents who are too busy, or too tired, or looking too much at their phone. They’re seeing children talk disrespectful and it’s chalked up to being the norm. Activities, events, and life pulls us and makes us busy and we lose those times around the table together.

Family is vitally important.

No matter what your experience with family might be you have power to change family for your children. Mothers, did you hear? You have power to make it different. Better. You can reclaim, protect, fight, guard, and unite your family. You can intentionally promote family as a blessing. A gift. Good. Something to be cherished. Protected. Worthy of fighting for. Important.

There will come a day when we are no longer here and our children will be the leaders – the mothers and the fathers – what legacy are we leaving? Seriously? Are our children going to believe culture or are they going to learn from us that family matters? We need to fight for family. We need to work to develop the bonds between our children. We need to demonstrate how important our children are to us. We need to be involved. We need to be awake. We need to listen, to see, and to be intentional. We cannot be passive and sit back and let time fritter away and our children grow and we wish for the days long gone when we could have done something.

The time is now.

This is a call to action. Not something to read and sigh and forget.

This is critical. Important. Needed. Intentional. Life changing.

You are given a gift in being their mother. Use it wisely.

Fight for your family, my friends, fight!

*****
Today’s journal? It’s about combining everything we’ve worked on – being awake, looking at our hearts, seeing our children, listening, recording, giving ourselves grace, being intentional, and not being afraid of work. It’s about family. I feel so strongly that we are given a unique opportunity in today’s culture to begin to take back the idea of family that has been stripped from us. Don’t buy the lie of this world – family does matter. Family is forever.

The parent child activity? One of my favorite {I’ll put our pics up Friday}. This exercise demonstrates the power of strength united. I’ll explain it in further detail in the download, but let me just tell you it clearly shows how when we are linked together we are stronger. And that? That is family united.

Tomorrow is Day 10 which is the last day of this series. Due to the overwhelming response to this series I’m contemplating making this Intentional Parenting thread a once a week feature on the blog. I’d write about a topic and include a journal page. If you’re interested, would you let me know? And would you share the word about the series? Tomorrow’s theme? Celebrate. The link up of favorite things will be up as well, so if you’re a blogger feel free to link.

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Blessings and enjoy your family!

The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects.Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network. You’ll be blessed with almost 300 posts on things ranging from  how to handle bad days to cultivating curiosity and teaching with Legos to cooking some fabulous gluten free/wheat free meals. Click the photograph to visit the iHomeschool Network site with links to all participants!