This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

I am very family centered.

I get teary when I watch a family movie with my wife and kids. I choke when I see a strong family loving one another.

And I love spending time with family.

Family is important. More so now than it has been in my life in the past. I’ve been brutally reminded of the mortality of this life with the loss of my brother and my father.

Now, it’s only my mother, a brother and myself. Seems sad…

Granted, I have several families through the years that have “adopted” us. We have grown very close, and will always be so.

But it’s not the same.

One of the things that scares me about 21st century American culture is the complete lack of priority of the family. The breakdown of the family is a dangerous path that will lead us to where we do not want to go.

America, and the world, needs to retrace our steps and re-realize the importance of family.

Here are just a few thoughts on family from Scripture:

• God ordained the family when he gave Eve to Adam in the Garden of Eden according to Genesis 2.
• God expects us to honor our fathers and mothers. Jesus echoed this thought from Exodus 20 in Matthew 15.
• Proverbs is full of examples that reinforce the importance of family: 1:8, 6:20, 15:20, just to name a few. Not to mention Proverbs 31.
• Paul speaks to the importance of family relationships in Ephesians 6:1-2 and Colossians 3:20.
• 1 Samuel 1 speaks of the importance of children by examining just how desperate Hannah was for a son.
• Psalm 127:3-5 reassures us that large families are great!
• God has adopted us into his family through the act of Christ in the cross, according to Galatians 4:4-7 and Ephesians 1:3-6.

While that’s great information to know, how can we apply it to our own families?

There are a lot of different facets to this discussion that would require enormous space to write. And much has been written on this. There are numerous great resources out there that can help solidify the family.

Our family has developed several traditions over the years that help to reinforce the importance of the family, at least for us. And if they work for us, they might work for you.

Several of these traditions surround the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will be sharing a few of them over the next few weeks.

But here are a few things you can do to instill a sense of family tradition within your own family.

Build A Legacy

Build traditions in such a way that your kids will want to emulate them in their own family someday. This can be anything from family devotions and prayer to handmade Christmas ornaments. My daughter has told me that she want to build the same traditions into her own family someday. That suggests that I may be doing something right here. One of our traditions that my kids get excited about are our Family Advent Nights. I will explain more about them in a post closer to Christmas. Go on dates with your daughters. Take your sons on a hike or a camping trip. Build a legacy.

Set Milestones

In the Old Testament, the patriarchs built an altar when God did something in their lives. While you neighbors may not like you building actual stone altars in your backyard, you can do similar things. We have several things around our home, pictures, figurines, even toys, that remind us of something God did within our family. They may be somber, like the display of Star Wars toys that belonged to my brother. Or they may be fun, like the door frame to my home office that is covered with the height measurements of my kids and the dates we measured their growth.

Develop A Rite Of Passage

Fathers, be the first man to send your daughter flowers. Take her on a special date to celebrate her becoming a young woman. Mothers, take a weekend away with your daughter to celebrate and instruct her how to be a woman. Fathers, do the same with your sons. Take them away for a weekend and spend the time instructing them what it means to be a man. Teach them how to shave, how to treat a woman. Be realistic about their responsibilities, and encouraging in the prospects of their future.

Establish Holiday And Birthday Traditions

Do many things the same way every year. The day you decorate the house for Christmas and how you do it. The way you celebrate birthdays. Make a big deal out of these kinds of things.

Prioritize Family Devotions

Don’t allow your busy schedules to squeeze this out. Make this one of the biggest priorities of you day. Talk about your day, and then read a Bible story and pray together. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Just do it. Once in a while, do this big. Take a family field trip that is based on a recent devotion. Read part of the life story of an inspirational life together once a week. But don’t skip this time. Ever.

Love Your Spouse

Men, one of the best ways to instill an importance of family in your kids is to love their mother. Ladies, likewise: love their father. When the kids see their parents in love, it creates an assurance, a confidence that is tough to sway. Make time for you and your spouse to talk. My wife and I have started to develop the discipline of “couch time”. Every evening for twenty or thirty minutes, we sit together and talk together. And we don’t allow the kids to interrupt us. This is “mom and dad time”. It drive my children nuts, especially the younger ones. But it shows them that one of our top priorities is our marriage.

Building traditions will help build your family. When you stress the importance of family, over and over and over, your kids will grow to understand it as well.

I am so thankful for my family, both immediate and extended. And I want to make sure that they know it, and know that I love them deeply.

What are you thankful for concerning your family? Or, what do you do to strengthen your family? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.