During this opening month, we’re taking a closer look at the family – your own family, what the Church has to teach about the family, and celebrating just how amazing families are!

There are lots of institutions that are being attacked by modern culture, but two of the most foundational ones are the Church and the family. One of our goals is to work against that so throughout the year we are going to be looking at a bunch of faith topics, and all of them will be viewed with the family in mind.

In this first Home Lesson (the green one) you’ll be talking about what makes your family unique: what makes you Team Webster or Team Sanoski or Team Jiménez. Each family is its own little culture. Families are made up of a group of unique, unrepeatable individuals, so it’s no surprise that each family’s culture is also unique and unrepeatable.

If someone were to ask you to describe your family in just a sentence or two, what would you say? Some of these things you may have chosen on purpose and some you may have drifted into, but it’s these kind of things that make up your family identity. A family’s identity implies goals and boundaries, and it also identifies what makes your family special and it says something about your family’s unique contribution.

The second part is to identify things that are important to your family and to set goals to get there.

• Start with the Our Family Goals sheet and work together to brainstorm all sorts of answers. Everything goes at this stage, and we have some ideas for you at the top of page 3 of the lesson.
• From this list, choose a couple and make a plan. It’s good to plan for success, so we recommend that one of your goals is easy and fun, and perhaps another is a little more challenging. Write them down and enlist all the members of your family Team to encourage one another to make it happen.