Family Forward: Stronger Families, Stronger Capes

by Heather Johnson on October 12th, 2013 | No Comments »

We all want stronger families! This made it easy for our Family Forward Conference to follow one very valuable theme: "Becoming a Super Hero Family." The goal was to provide families with powerful tools to bring them closer together and help them become stronger.

With the opportunity to address attendees, I took time before the conference to think about what could be said to help families grow stronger. I also decided I needed to figure out who my favorite super hero was. Immediately I knew it was Superman.

There are a lot of reasons I like Superman, but let me tell you a few of them.

He didn’t know about his powers at first. He had to learn and discover the amazing strengths that he had.
He took time to hone his skills. He couldn’t just fly right at first. He had to practice and figure it out.
He had to be patient with himself.
Kryptonite was his personal weakness

You know, our families are like Superman. We have super powers—some are hidden and some are obvious—but we have them. Just like Superman we must discover what those super powers are and then we have to practice them and hone our skills.

It takes time, it takes work, but in the end, just like Superman, we can save the world. We really can! My family is my world, which means we can save our families too! We can be stronger families.

The conference room at Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando was overflowing with super powers. Powerful families. Families with great super strength. I could see and feel their super powers from the stage.

I could see...

courage
determination
creativity
compassion
good communicators
team players
love
gratitude

And that was just the beginning. The families in the room could feel it also.

But as we met together, there was a piece of the super hero puzzle that we hadn't talked about yet, the villains or nemesis. Every great super hero has a nemesis.

The Transformers had The Decepticons.

Spiderman had The Green Goblin.

and…

Harry Potter had Lord Voldomort.

Super hero families are no exception. We also have a nemesis. In fact we have lots of them. We are constantly being hit by enemies that cause suffering and problems. I know that some families faced a few of them just getting to the Family Forward conference.

Family villains come in different forms. There are the villains that we don’t ask for. These are challenges that come into our lives such as health problems, or loss of job. These don’t attack every family equally, but they are out there.

Then there are other villains. Villains that attack each and every one of us. Villains that slow our pursuit of becoming stronger families.

The first villain that attacks us all is the time we spend away from our homes. Society pressures our families to be involved in EVERYTHING, convincing us that children have to be involved in 10 sports and play 3 musical instruments. Mothers and fathers feel the pressure to do it all. But the fact is, the more time we spend away from our homes in individual activities, the less time we have to spend at home with our families. Spending too much time away from our homes is a nemesis that is attacking all families. It is hard to be stronger families when we are never together.

Another nemesis that is attacking our families is technology. Now, we are huge fans of technology here at Family Forward. In fact, technology can be a great asset to all of us. When we talk about technology as a nemesis, we are referring to when technology starts to take over our lives and becomes our primary form of entertainment and communication. As families we need to make time for each other, technology-free. Just because we are at home in the same house, doesn’t mean we are together, if we are all on different electronic devices. We have to tame technology and put it away, so we have time for one another.

Then, there is Kryptonite. Kryptonite was a personal weakness of Superman and we all have our own personal Kryptonite. Personal weaknesses such as selfishness, jealousy, impatience, and miscommunication. All these enemies are trying to weaken our powers and paralyze our vision. Personal Kryptonite keeps us from being stronger families.

So what can we do? The villains are not going away. We are all going to face them. How do we fight against them?

We Have To Strengthen Our Capes! Want to know how? Tune in for Part 2 where we will talk about how to become stronger families by strengthening your capes.