Is Your Family A Victim Of Hyper Connectivity?

Essential Strategy #6: Belong To A Community

Mark Rogers | Convergence

Teen Staring At A Screen

If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to far go together~African Proverb

Having spent quite a bit of time in East Africa working in a faith based context I came to love the near eastern culture where community is woven throughout much like vibrant colors are in the fabrics. Whether it's pulling up a plastic chair under a Mango tree and chewing the news, or stopping along the path to exchange morning greetings with someone you've never met the sense of community was never far away. You couldn't help but somehow feel a kindred spirit and neighborly love for the people around you.

Community in America is not so easily found. Community however, is an essential strategy to building a thriving family & drug free kids.

I've come to learn making time to belong to community is not only an innate human need but in the fight for our children's well being in a culture gone mad it is a requirement if we want them to thrive & live drug free.

The Connected Family will belong to a supportive community, and will seek it out. A supportive community is an extension into the family. It is a place where like minded people who share the same values and who have similar goals come together in a spirit of love and care for one another and in doing so reinforce and strengthen what is already being built.

Studies have shown when we surround ourselves with like minded people and associating with others who either want what we have or are seeking to go in the same direction can be like rocket fuel as we seek to obtain our goals and achieve what we have set out to do. In the next five years we will be products of the materials we read and the people we associate with.

In the next five years we will be products of the books we read and the people we associate with.

Nothing happens by accident that is worthwhile, and having a supportive group of people around us not only increases our chance of winning as a family but it will also enrich us in our marriage too. Finding a group to do life with is a definite game changer!

Association vs. Acquaintance

The idea here is finding those who we can associate with vs. people who are acquaintances. An associate is someone who we are joined in relationship with in some manner. The joining is much like a joint in the body where there are things which are shared between one another. There is a mutuality where a partnership of some kind is developed and where things are passed to one another, strengthening the association and causing the relationship to flourish. The result of this joining aligns the relationship and points both parties in a common direction sharing a common purpose. Associate relationships are far different than mere acquaintances. In American culture an acquaintance has the very low bar of recognizing someone in a public place from the soccer fields, or the PTA meeting, whereas an associate does life together.

When we associate with and belong to community we share a sense of responsibility towards one another. Really, this love for one another works like a fabric holding us together in a world at odds with the nuclear family.

When we decide to belong to community we not only enrich the lives of those who we associate with but also the lives of others around us. Something special begins to happen in all other aspects of our lives when we choose to be intentional in this way. There is a special blessing that comes from being generous with our life towards others.

If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together.

---

If you have gotten value from this content please like, comment and subscribe. We would love for you to join our community and become part of The Convergence Family!