A family that stands for nothing, falls for anything. What are your family’s core values? That was the question I posed to people at the Soulful Chicago Book Fair 2016, a premier book fair for Chicago authors of color. It was the first book fair for my newly released parenting guide, “Raising Hell or Raise Them Well”. In my booth, I set up a Family Values board and asked attendees to share a word or two that represented what they felt were the most important values for a healthy loving family. I received a lot of interesting responses. Some of the more popular ones: Respect, Kindness, Communication, Integrity, Support, Prayer, Forgiveness… But the greatest of these was Love! Unconditional Love, Forgiveness and Love, Hard work and Love, Black on Black Love, Patience and Love…LOVE!
Certainly the Family Values Board was a great way to begin a conversation about my book, but more importantly, it got folks thinking just what values are most important to them within their own family structure. One thing is for certain, it all begins with love.
A couple of years ago, I shared with my readers my own family’s value statement – from the men’s perspective, “Hughes Men Core Values”. I asked my husband, sons and their grandpa to come up with statements that represented their core beliefs and values. What did it mean to be a Hughes Man? I included it in my book. In fact, I use it as an example in the last interactive exercise in Chapter 5,” Raise Your Skills at Building Character”.
I suggest that you have that conversation with your co-parent, children and family members so that together, you may come up with a Core Values Statement. Who are you individually and together? What are your expectations for your family? What attributes can bring your family closer together?
In order for us to bring “family” back in style, we have to build up the character of what family means. Again I ask, what does family mean to you? Most importantly, how will you put it into action? I’ve got my grandsons ( ages 8 and 10) learning the Hughes Men Core Values this summer. They have mentioned a couple of lines in certain situations, e.g ‘Hughes men practice self control’ when they get out of hand. That confirmed it was sinking in.
I invite you to take the Family Values Challenge. Share them with me via comments, video, poetry, art, song – however way you wish. You can go to my website… Click the “Share Your Story” tab: www.raisinghellorraisethemwell.com. Or go to my Facebook page… Facebook.com/raisethemwell
It’s all about saving our families one parent at a time. Blessings…
#FamilyValues, #RaisingHellorRaiseThemWell #PositivePropaganda #EdyeDelochHughes #SoulfulChicagoBookFair #Chicago
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Filed under: Family, Fatherhood, Inspiration, multicultural, parenting, Uncategorized, urban, Youth
Tags: family core values, family values, Raising Hell or Raise Them Well, Soulful Chicago Book Fair
