What Makes a Family Strong and Successful

• According to Dr. Wayne Matthews of North Carolina State University, published by North Carolina

  Cooperative Extension Service in 2008 for Advocates for Youth publications, there are at least five "L's"

  which contribute to strong family relationships.

  1. Learning

  2. Loyalty

  3. Love

  4. Laughter

  5. Leadership
• Learning - families are where values, skills, and behavior are learned. Strong families manage and control their learning experiences. They establish a pattern of home life, guide theft children into the world outside the home. They do not let social forces rule their family life. They involve themselves in neighborhood, school, government, church, and business in ways that support their family values. Strong families teach by example and learn through experience as they explain and

  execute their values.
• Loyalty - strong families have a sense of loyalty and devotion toward family members. The family sticks together. They stand by each other during times of trouble. They stand up for each other when attacked by someone outside the family. A family is a place of shelter for individual family members. In times of personal success or defeat, the family becomes a cheering section or amourning bench.
• Love - is at the heart of the family. All humans have the need to love and to be loved; the family is normally the place where love is expressed. Love is the close personal blending of physical and

  mental togetherness. It includes privacy, intimacy, sharing, belonging, and caring. The atmosphere of real love is one of honesty, understanding, patience, and forgiveness. Such love does not

  happen automatically; it requires constant daily effort by each family member. Loving families share activities and express a great deal of gratitude for one another.
• Laughter - is a good family medicine. Humor is a regulator: of family tensions. Through laughter, the family learns to see each other honestly and objectively. Laughter can help release tensions

  and balances each other's efforts in order to view things accurately.
• Leadership - family members, usually the adults, must assume responsibility for leading the family.

  If no one, accepts this vital role, the family will dwindle. Each family needs its own special set of rules and guidelines. These rules are based on the family members' greatest understanding of one

  another, not forces. The guidelines pass along from the adults to the children.