[Editor’s note: The author explains her family’s Lenten commitment to take the Love Dare here . Regular updates will be posted all through Lent. Click here to catch up on previous posts. Due to CE staff scheduling, we will not be able to keep up with these posts daily, but we will make sure they are all posted, even though it means they run past Lent. ]
Work on oneness.
“A man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh " (Genesis 2:24).
The details of today’s dare when done as a couple are much more complex, but since we are doing the dare for the family we needed to simplify things.
My husband and I have long been believers in the need for family unity. We have gone to great lengths to work at what we call, “family team building.” We have even given talks on the subject. So for us, today’s dare was just a reminder to renew our commitment to that.
As a family, we believe that having a family name is important. I know the trend is for wives to keep their own last names, but in our opinion, that would be like trading a Washington Redskin to the Dallas Cowboys and still calling him a Redskin. We have nicknamed our family, Team Rosien. We actively seek out activities and opportunities to team build with our children.
Once we all played hooky. We formed a boys’ team and a girls’ team and had a contest to see whose behavior would be better that day. We took them bowling and out for treats. It was a great day and the combination of competing and working together really united us.
A therapist once told our family that we, “Excelled in overcoming obstacles.” I think that is what having a family team is all about. Knowing each other’s strengths and weakness, supporting each other where we are weak and counting on the strengths we each possess is the secret of strong family unity.
Lord, help us to remember that a house divided cannot stand. Show us the strengths each of us have and help us to use those gifts to strengthen our family.
