Sharing Family Stories: Simple Rhythms for Everyday Family Time

If you want your faith and values to stick with your kids and go well beyond the years they live at home, one of the most dependable ways to pass those things down is also one of the simplest: sharing family stories. Your family stories hold the lessons God has walked your family through, and they make your values something your children can picture, remember, and repeat. Sharing family stories does not take a big production. With a few small rhythms, it can become a natural part of your family time.

HOW DO YOU MAKE SHARING FAMILY STORIES A NATURAL PART OF FAMILY TIME?

To make this part of natural rhythms in your family, start by compiling the stories you want to carry on, tying each one to your family values, and then build them into rhythms you live out each day. Below are two simple approaches you can take to bring it all together.

APPROACH 1: SHARE FAMILY STORIES CASUALLY IN EVERYDAY MOMENTS

The easiest place to begin is in the moments you already share, like the drive home or the dinner table. When a memory comes up, tell it. Stories of joy and laughter belong here, and so do stories of pain and confusion. Share why they matter to you, what you learned from them, and how you saw God in them.

Even your family traditions can become stories worth retelling. For example, picture a family whose Christmas tradition was an intentional dinner every Sunday night during Advent. Each week they lit the next candle on the wreath, read a short devotional, and prayed together. Years later, the story of those dinners still carries several of their values at once: prayer, relationship, and tradition.

When you tell stories like this one, name those values out loud. Retelling the same stories and pointing back to the same values is what makes them memorable and lasting.

APPROACH 2: BUILD INTENTIONAL TIME FOR SHARING FAMILY STORIES

Some stories deserve a setting of their own, and they are easy to miss if you don't make space for them. Set specific times for storytelling, and let your family know what is happening and why. Here are two ways to do this.

TURN THE TABLES WITH A KIDS’ INTERVIEW

Many parents look back and wish they had asked their own families about stories of their daily life, friendships, trials, and adventures along the way. One way to share those kinds of stories intentionally is to flip the script and allow your family to be the one to ask questions on stories they want to know more about.

Set a date and time for the session with your family. Write a handful of questions, drop them in a jar, let your kids pull one out, or invite them to bring their own. Here’s a few you can start with:

• Who was one of your best friends growing up, and what is a favorite memory with them?
• When did you see God answer a specific prayer?
• What was a meaningful family tradition to you growing up, and why did it matter?

Tie each answer back to a family value if possible as you share about the deeper lessons in those stories. Don’t hesitate to share the same stories either. When your kids hear these stories again and again, they hold onto the same themes, and one day they will share them with families of their own.

HOST A CELEBRATION NIGHT

Sometimes a relaxing setting sets the tone your family needs to rest, celebrate, and enjoy the good happening in your lives. Plan a night everyone looks forward to, whether that is pizza and a movie, ice cream and games, or a picnic and a bonfire. Make sure to set the expectation that this night will be to gather and come ready with a story.

Make it feel like a celebration, and hear one story from each person. Come ready with an intentional set of questions to keep it meaningful:

• What is something good that happened lately?
• What makes you thankful for it?
• How did God show up in it?
• What did you learn from it?

As each person shares, draw out the family values woven through their story. Show them how they can start naming your family values in their own stories, and they will start being able to see and pass them down on their own one day.

WHY SHARING FAMILY STORIES IS WORTH IT

Now that you have these two approaches to sharing family stories, test out one this week. Working it in naturally might look like telling one story on the drive home and naming the values you see within it. Making it intentional might look like putting a celebration night on the calendar and choosing your questions ahead of time. Make an effort to build them into your family's rhythms over time.

The stories you share paint a picture of your family. Told over and over, they teach your kids what your family stands for. Stories are one of the best tools you have to build your family on God's design.