[2] The Importance of Family Narratives

Bruce Feiler of the New York Times wrote, "The most important thing to do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative." The New York Times article explained the importance of family narratives.  According to this article, a happy family will create, refine, and retell family stories. After experimenting strategies and how children cope with different situations, they concluded, "The [children] who know a lot about their families tend to do better when they face challenges". These kids were proven to 1. have a stronger sense of self control 2. have a higher self esteem 3. the more successful they felt their families functioned.  After this study, came the terrorist attacks of 9/11. They tested the children again, and the same kids who knew about their families showed resilience.

These are so important qualities for children to have early in their life when building a foundation for themselves. It is interesting it comes from knowing about the origin of their family and hearing stories about them. LDS.org also wrote few thoughts on this article. Though mainly summarizing the previous article, the thoughts on lds.org also added ideas giving more hope. I love that they emphasize the importance of the stories to be journeys of trials and hardship, but how it is equally (if not more) important to result the stories with overcoming the trial and having a rewarding outcome. This point reminds me of my family stories, and I love that! This life is supposed to be hard, but we have been blessed with ancestors and family members with amazing lives to learn from. We will be asked to do hard things in this life, but we can do hard things, and that is what I think family narratives are all about.