A family can be a source of love, completeness, sacrifice, and a place to call home. What does family mean to you? Close friendships or painful separations? Are there ways of bringing families together to heal from feelings of disconnect, pain, or emotional instability?

Thankfully, there are ways to strengthen family bonds, but each family has their own specific needs to understand and address. Once you are aware of these, you can start to discover which family activities will be best for the growth and stability of your family unit.

A Simple Note to a Family Member Can Mean the World

When thinking about family units and ways to remain close, the simple things in life often matter the most. For example, kids regularly write notes to friends and crushes. In high school, passing notes is a simple right of passage for many teens. Why not send a note to a family member to just say “I love and care about you” (www.sheknows.com/parenting)?

One simple note can make the difference between a good or bad day. That same note will also tell your family member that Mom, Dad, or a sibling are thinking about you. Sometimes words fail to express feelings, so the small act of sending a note can speak volumes. In any family, knowing that you are cared and loved for is important. When someone goes the extra mile like giving a kind note, you feel complete and loved.

Dinner Time is for Bonding with Extended Family

Supper time is for more than just eating. Dinner is for bonding with family and should be a weekly ritual that is done as much as possible (www.sheknows.com/parenting).

Eating together can also be set up as a regular habit where grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all invited. By inviting your extended family to join dinner on a weekly or monthly basis, bonding with the entire family unit can begin. Forming strong, stable relationships with extended family emphasizes the importance of family to your children and can lead to familial stability for future generations to come.

Family Rituals Can Create Lifelong Memories

Family rituals and traditions are more than occasional Sunday dinners or Friday game nights. They happen when you regularly schedule activities and set family goals. These traditions can be as simple as a movie night, but they make memories that will last a lifetime. When creating family rituals, include every member’s inputs and thoughts into what activities your family would like to do.

Some examples are writing stories for each other, make-your-own-pizza night, or go-to-a-museum day. Be as creative as you want in thinking of activities to do. Regardless of what you choose, the memories of those traditions will not be forgotten by your family members.

Support Your Family

When family members participate in activities like soccer games, recitals, or spelling bees, you can show your support by taking part with them. By attending these sorts of special activities, you show your love towards your family (www.sheknows.com/parenting) and spend quality time together. Showing that you care and love your family by supporting their activities and their interests can make a huge difference in strengthening family bonds.

All Voices Should be Counted

When talking to your family and deciding activities, be sure to acknowledge and listen to everyone’s voices. If you want to raise your children to have a voice, you also need to listen to that voice (www.sheknows.com/parenting). When parents listen to the input of everyone in the household, they can create traditions, rituals, and activities that everyone likes.

Simply being in a family does not mean that close relationships come overnight. When you listen to your family, create rituals, and support and love each other, then closeness can come. As you do this, you may change your outlook on family, and you and your family can grow closer together for years to come.

Written by Diana Ashworth, blogger at Safe Harbor International Ministries