Building a Positive Heritage

Family Traditions/Fragrance  (Much of this comes from Heritage Builders  - Focus on the Family Australia)

What is the AROMA of your home?

When we smell an aroma it is usually associated worth some kind of memory positive or negative. What was the aroma of your home as a child? Was it a positive one?

As adults weer have a chance to build a positive legacy and leave our children with a positive memory of a home filled with a good AROMA.

A - Affection
R - Respect
O - Order
M- Merriment
A - Affirmation

Affection
Power of touch

How do we nuture and admonish our children

Nuture
Listenning, positive touch, affectionate names etc

Admonish
Gently helping them to  see blind spots, one on one etc.

Children need to know they are accepted  and loved.

Respect
Respect and worth for the individual

1 Peter 2:17
Honour all. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the King.

Respect can be both entitled and earned.

Entitled - commanded by position
Parents, government positions, spiritually

Note - If we hold a position of entitled resoect this entitled respect should not be misused but taken seriously and with the intent to build a positive outcome.

E.g. command to honour parents, respect those in authority.

Eph 6:2 Honour your father and mother..

Romans 13:1 Submit to those in authority

Earned respect
Comes from what we do.
Our labour, services to others, performance in the family unit.

As patents we can foster respect in our children.

Spiritually  - true value
Emotionally  - sense of security
Socially - a foundation for treating others fairly

Order
Rules - boundaries - consequences - positive and negative

As parents we establish clear boundaries

Write them down and communicate them
Stick to them

Keep the list short and cover the important stuff

Be consistent

Roles
Every member has a role to play
Ensure that tbe roles are clear. Clear roles ate good training grounds

Rights
Each person in the family including children have a right to:
Be listened to
Voice their opinion
Express concern over how they are treated

This is done in a way that values others

Merriment
Establishing fun in the home

Joy and laughter being a family together

Prov 17:22
A merry heart does good like a medicine...

Exercise - butchers paper
5 creative fun ways to spend time as a family

Affirmation
Helping the child build self worth

Prov 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life

Encouragement  - to keep moving forward - not give up - learn lessons from difficulties

Keys to affirming
Declare the child's identity and place in your heart

Be enthusiastic rather than apathetic

Be engaged in their accomplishments and activities

Family traditions - more on developing these at the workshop

Tradition
Handing down stories, beliefs, customs

Establishes a sense of identity

Ritual

Ceremonial observance  - support the goals of tradition and not the other way around.

Traditions should be reshaped, reformed and refreshed to stay culturally relevant

Purpose - a strong sense of identity in the home

Traditions - a means to an end - reinforce truth - help our kids to love God

Some ideas
The Art of Tradition
Events
Birthdays
Dinners etc
Christmas and Easter

Stories
Photos and family treasures etc
Recalling past places

Basically story telling

E.g. stories handed down from one generation to the next.

My mum is particularly good at this.

Creeds - family or otherwise

Seasonal traditions planner
Note: Our Christmas tradition in our family and why it came about