Family Crest-Love is Action

Love is Action

A family tradition that we did each New Year’s Eve as our children were growing up was to make a family crest-(like the old fashion coat of arms on a shield that identified each family in the days of old). A fun and simple activity that only requires a piece of poster board, a few colored markers, a glue stick, a few pictures from magazines, photographs or paper to draw on, a bit of creativity and an hour or so of time. So simple but so significant. For our family it became a time of reflection and a time of looking forward to the upcoming year. We shared our hopes and dreams for the coming year. We chose a quote or slogan that would challenge our attitudes and actions for the year and a theme bible verse that would be the foundation for our family’s commitment to one another for the upcoming year. The year we chose “LOVE IS ACTION “ as our theme was one I remember so well. We were not having any major conflicts in our family that year-we had just grown complacent and lazy in making choices that would demonstrate love to one another in tangible ways. So we drew our Crest (shield) on the posterboard and divided it into four sections… We chose Philippians 2:1-8 as our theme bible passage and decided that our goal would be to strive to have an attitude like Christ-loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. We chose to love others and demonstrate that love in our actions toward others. In one quadrant of the shield we drew the four sisters, in one the parents and the other two consisted of people in our lives that we desired to show love to in strategic ways and our circles of influence in our world. This poster hung in our dining room for the entire year. We talked about loving kindness often and shared about how we were doing as individuals and as a family at showing love to one another. We challenged one another to model the love of Christ at home and in our community. We had a special family identity for that year that made a lasting impression on all of us-love is a choice and LOVE IS ACTION…We wrote it down, lived it out and passed it on!!!

Here are a few examples of other Family Crests we made when the girls were young.