Nine Days to Nurture: Faith.

I've had a tug at my heart strings lately, and have decided to focus on nine principles that I believe lead to successful families. Whatever stage of life you're at, whether you're single, young & married, married with teenage children, or empty-nesters, I think these nine principles will lead you to have the most nurturing and healthy family life experience possible.

Today is all about faith.

How can faith play a role in your family's life? Well, I'll start by saying that research indicates that families that participate in any faith-promoting organization exhibit higher levels of resiliency during hard times, better parenting practices, & leadership. This article gives a pretty good overview, but you can look at almost any research to see how faith promotes families.

Families are more enduring when they are founded upon faith. Faith-promoting institutions, regardless of denomination, provide a sense of community and help children to socialize. Also, a belief in a higher being brings hope during even the darkest of times.

Parenting practices (by & large, not always) are better in homes where faith is a fundamental part of the family. Typically, religious parents in Westernized societies are more likely to be democratic with their children, and are less likely to abuse any member of their family.

Also, families built on faith are provided more opportunities to be accountable to a higher being, and are better able to adjust to leadership or positions of authority.

And that's just the research. Of course, there are so many other elements of faith that promote family well-being. Families who regularly attend religious activities spend more time together, on average.

Families are the fundamental unit of society. Faith promotes family togetherness. When faith & family meet and are integrated into a regular part of life, families are better able to function. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but faith has been shown to lead to better outcomes within family life.

No matter what you believe, integrate positive, family-promoting beliefs into your home. Allow your family to come closer together through the power of faith.

More to come this week! Tomorrow's topic is prayer. For more information on my faith & its relationship to my family, visit here.