Week of the Family – Mid South. We are Family!
& 
Welcome. Imagine the impact your life can have on your world, as you touch the lives around you. Families are about building better relationships between child-to-parent and spouse-to-spouse. We must remember ‘why family time is important.’ The goal is to build lasting relationships within our families. Family time is now.
↪ WEEK-0F-THE-FAMILY (MidSouth) November 16th – 22nd
The Purpose of Week of the Family
The purpose of WEEK-OF-THE-FAMILY is to provide a family fun experiences that are centered on families and their relationships. Interaction with other families is also helpful to strengthen family bonds.
Worthwhile Activities
Preparation and execution. Playing sports as a family may consist of football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, etc. On long vacation trips, we can play eye spy, and name that tune, etc. We can go on camping trips. However, let’s remember what consists of wholesome FAMILY activites.
We need to focus on things that are bigger than ourselves. We should focus on kindness, self-esteem, self-control, generosity, temperance, humility, modesty, gratitude, and optimism. Each of us needs to develop these signature strengths.
Defining Recreation. Happier lives are formed from wholesome recreation. When people engage in leisure, they do it for the joy of activity. They genuinely want to do it. For example, if you run for some other reason than fun, then running, for you, is not leisure. Recreation has been defined as a leisure time we use to restore, refresh, and regain control in our lives. It provides opportunities for accomplishment and fosters feelings of self-worth, enjoyment, and pleasure. It is also socially constructed and morally acceptable.
In light of this definition of leisure, combining “family” and “recreation” can seem contradictory. How many of us, as parents, always feel like our family recreation is a freely chosen, positive experience? Family recreation is sometimes viewed as a burden by parents who feel it is something we have to do. Family recreation takes some effort on our part.
Aristotle’s philosophy on leisure. The first perspective comes from Aristotle, the great philosopher who lived over two thousand years ago. [ According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the good life is characterized by the habit of virtuous action. ] Contemporary happiness, by contrast, is viewed by many as a transient state of well feeling. We say to ourselves, how many of these activities can we string together? The more of these activities we string together, we think, the happier we will be.
This logic, however, is problematic. If we go back to the times when family recreation generally was found in the form of work and many modern conveniences were not available, you would think those people would have been sad. Part of the problem is rising expectations. We are told that we have to meet a higher standard of materialism. The question is, what would really make us happy? What is the “good life?” Aristotle wrote that the good life consists of leisure that is:
- Intellectually stimulating,
- Creative,
- Moral, and
- Conducive to good human relationships.
WEBSITE LINK: http://weekofthefamily-midsouth.org/
