How to Build a Strong Family

"Successful marriages and families are established and

maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, 

respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

The best way to build a strong family is through wholesome recreation. Spending time with your family doing whatever you like to do is helping your family create a bond with each other through memories and experiences they all have with each other. There are so many things you can do with your family. It doesn't have to be a huge, expensive, week long vacation to make your children remember what they did. It can be anything that is meaningful to the people involved. Start at a young age with your children. Let them know that you enjoy spending time with them and you love going on adventures with them. Not only will this help get them out of the house and into the world, it will also help them be excited to spend time with family. 

"Our free time should be used wisely to create the best 

possible life, to promote individual growth and strengthen families."

These days there is so much technology and television out there for us to waste our time watching and looking at. There are so many times when I would rather have stayed home and binge watched my favorite TV show instead of going camping with my family for the weekend. I stand as a witness that quality time spent with family is time that you will not regret. The TV show can wait but your family will not stop growing and moving on without you. Don't get left behind while you are too caught up in your social media posts that you miss your children growing or your siblings excelling in life. This life is precious and our time is limited here on this earth. Make every moment count and spend it with those you love. 

"Family experts have warned against what 

they call “the over scheduling of children.” Among 

many measures of this disturbing trend are the reports that 

structured sports time has doubled, but 

children’s free time has declined by 12 hours per week and 

unstructured outdoor activities have fallen by 50%. 

The number of those who reported that their “whole 

family usually eats dinner together” has declined 

33%. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: 

what your children really want for dinner is you."

Don't get too caught up in the worldly things that take time away from your families. Remember that downtime is good and your child's childhood is a time to learn and grow, not a time to be stressed out because of all the activities they are signed up for. Children should definitely play sports and do extra curricular activities but don't over schedule them to the point of exhaustion. Children should be able to play outside and play with friends to ensure that they are socially ready for the world ahead of them.