When I began working with families, I also began to look for a way to effectively communicate what characteristics promote a stronger, healthier, more intimate family. In the process, I have completed many training courses related to marriage and parenting. I’ve read books and attended classes. My favorites certification trainings have included marital trainings through the Gottmann Institute and the Prepare/Enrich programs as well as parenting trainings through ICDL DIRFloortime. I have enjoyed studying various attachment models, the Circle of Security, and Vygotskian approaches to children. As I taught and worked with couples and families, I continued to seek a way to communicate what I had learned. One way I found to communicate this information was through writing blogs, blogs based on ways to build a celebrating family on the foundations of honor and grace. And now, I have written over 1,500 of these blogs. Some are very informative…some not so much. Some I really like…some not so much. Some of the ideas have grown and changed over time, but they all represent ways to enhance the health of your marriage and family through celebration, honor, and grace.

Honor teaches us to value our family members like diamonds above coal. To cherish our family rather than use them for our own comforts and needs, to “lift them up” and encourage them rather than discourage. Honor treats each family member with politeness and respect, giving them and their needs as high a priority, even a higher priority at times, than our own. Honor seeks opportunities to learn about the ones we love, to share our gratitude for them often, and to express our admiration and affection every day.

Grace allows us to fill our family with service, generosity, and forgiveness. Each of these strengthens our families and enhances intimacy within our families. Grace provides the motivation to repair offenses and hurts caused by our mistakes or our momentary expressions of anger. Grace allows us to “repair the breach” and reunite in deeper, more intimate ways. Grace teaches us to change our behavior, our interactions, and our words in ways that will express the depth of our love.

Celebration flows from honor and grace. When honor and grace permeate our families, we experience a family filled with celebration, a family that loves celebrating one another “every opportunity they get.”

If you know someone that wants a family like fits this definition—a celebrating family filled with honor and grace—pass this website along. Give them the information on the Honor Grace Celebrate website as a resource to build their family into a celebrating community of honor and grace. They can peruse the blogs for family building ideas and parenting ideas, ideas to enhance their marriage and ideas for expressing honor and grace.  Or they can search specific topics and concerns to find information that they “need in the moment.”

One of the reasons I value families so much is because the benefit of a healthy, intimate family does not end with the family. A healthy, intimate family sends mature people into the world where they share honor and grace in their interactions with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers. They share politeness, kindness, and grace with everyone they meet. In reality, they help create a better world. Wouldn’t that be something to celebrate?