Building great family culture starts with stories.

Brad Grey of Walking the Text teaches a simple truth: in Jewish families, from birth to about age 5, parents sought to taught their children two things.

First, they taught the Shema:  Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Think of the Shema as foundational to the life of the individual and the life of the family. The Lord is our God.  It’s not about me. It’s about God.  Therefore, we should love him with all that we are.

The second big area of teaching for children was to focus on teaching Bible stories. These would be the baseline stories of creation, Noah and the flood, Abraham going out to the promised land, Abraham & Isaac, Jacob & Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Slavery in Egypt, the Passover. These stories helped children understand they were part of a bigger story—life was not just about themselves.

When we teach The Power of Your Family Legacy workshop, we ask families to write down their top 10 stories they want their children and grandchildren to know (You can now experience this workshop from the comfort of your home in our online course!). Within the stories, we find the emotion—what it cost, the moments of heartbreak, the moments of joy—and within it we find our family values.

As we know and discover our stories—the stories from the Bible and the family stories—we find our family culture, the connection to our bigger story.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published January 9, 2023

Topics: Family Legacy | Lessons with Bill

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