How Commitment Can Help A Family
A commitment is a pledge or a promise.
Applied to family life, it is a sense of responsibility or duty to the family that overrides temporary conflicts or times of crisis. Members of strong families take their familial commitment seriously. It’s conscious, unwavering, and unconditional.
Strong, committed families are not immune to the problems faced by everyone else in modern times – they too face hectic days, financial difficulties, demanding work hours, marital infidelity, and illness.
In strong families, however, commitment implies that family members help each other out during hard times. They make the family relationship a priority, even if it means sacrificing personal wants, activities outside of the family, or work demands.
At the core of sacrificing for the family is the idea of putting the interests of others ahead of one’s own – a notion that reflects moral values and integrity.
So how can you build your own sense of commitment to your family, while also helping your family do the same?
Try these things:
Arrange a family council for an hour once a month. Discuss your family goals, what you’re doing to meet them, and what needs to be worked on. Listen to each other’s ideas rather than condemning them. Encourage free, open, and accepting communication.
If everyone in the family is too busy with outside activities, rearrange schedules so that more time can be spent together as a family. Or have each family member agree to give up one outside activity.
Designate a wall in the house as the “family wall.” Decorate it with photos, souvenirs, and family mementos.
Make a record of the family history in a photo album, identifying dates, places, and special events.
Commitment is not always easy to maintain. But making the choice ahead of time that you are committed to your family and putting their needs ahead of your own can make it easier to stick with that choice when challenges arise.
If you’re struggling with feeling or maintaining commitment to your family, a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist may be able to help. Sometimes just getting an outside set of eyes on the challenges you’re facing can help you see things from another perspective and find ways to work through the situation.