Family Mission, Traveling Together As One
What is our family about? Who are we? What do we stand for? What are we known for? What qualities define our family? It is easy to become fully engulfed by the individualism of our culture that fragments us and disconnects us from the community. We were made for relationships and created to be in community. We are not meant to be alone. Many families operate solely on an individual basis. Each person in the family has their personality and direction. They are loosely affiliated with their family, and they become further detached from those they love as time goes by.
There are numerous lifelong benefits of traveling together as a family, supporting each other, and having a common mission and purpose. Certainly, each member of our family is unique. However, we are not disconnected. We are all Knights and operate as the Knight family and the family name matters. Can we leave a legacy together, or is this a connection of loose relationships with no vision to make a difference?
People often mention to me that our family seems so close. They ask, “How did you accomplish this?” I tell them that each one is an independent actor with their own path. However, I relay that we have a common journey; we intentionally built family ties and worked as a unit. As we did, we all became closer. The benefit of being together and its impact on our lives and the world became clear. We had family dinners together, we went to church together, we took vacations together, and much more. Today, all our adult children live within two miles of each other on the Westside of Los Angeles. They live their own lives. However, they often get coffee, work out, hike, shop, and connect for advice or to have fun. They are present in each other’s lives. They are a family with all the benefits of strong relationships in the same community.
All my children chose to go to school and live in Los Angeles. They did so to invest in building the Knight family and the friend relationships they have had for decades. They all got accepted to college at schools around the country. Certainly, there is a benefit from going away and having different experiences. However, there is a benefit from deepening the network and the family.
Develop a family mission with core values and slogans that bring definition and give each family member a handle to remember the family direction. For our family, one key value was thankfulness. We talked about it every day. We understood the importance of being thankful in a complaining world. Friends of ours actually created a mission together; they hammered it out as a family and framed it with a family picture in their home. Each time they passed the wall where it hung, it reminded them of what they collectively were about and cared for.
We don’t need to live fragmented and disconnected lives. We can make decisions to prioritize community and family. It pays big dividends in shaping our teens and adult children.
