“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:10 NIV)
We are getting ready for Thoreson Retreat. In about a week, the four of us will head to Hill Country Camp for 2.5 days of family adventure, discussions and fun. Thoreson Retreat is a Texas tradition for us. We went annually when the kids were small, all up until we moved to Iowa and family life got complicated.
Rob and I are excited to restate this tradition. I’ve been praying about what to do with our days away and this idea of ‘honor’ keeps coming up. Gary Smalley writes about family honor in his book, Let’s Do Family Together. He shares how creating a culture of honor helps us appropriately value one another while creating a safe space for communication and growth.
Gary and his wife employ honor lists, assembling a collection of character traits for each person in their family. They review and append their honor lists regularly. He shares that this is especially helpful when there is a miscommunication; consulting the honor list in the heat of misunderstanding refocuses the heart on what is good and true about our family member, rather than a perceived failure or offense.
Honestly, Rob and I are pretty far into this family gig to start writing honor lists for each other. I wish I’d read more of Gary Smalley sooner. We’re almost done raising kids and it’s easy to look back and wish we’d done better. The truth is, though, we can begin again today. For sure we get one more family weekend away and an opportunity to alter our future forward. So we’re going to seize it and start from here.
“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:17 NIV)
Lord, thank You for teaching us new things even when it feels a little late. Give us the courage to grab on to truth and implement it into our lives, starting today. Help us create a culture of honor wherever we go, but especially under our own roof. Amen.