Banana Split Families
A perfect family is not one that does not have any issues they are working on or trying to get better. It is a family that works with what they have and creates a culture where all involved feel loved.
I started this site thanks to banana splits. Seems like a strange reason to start something around leadership and parenting but go with me on this. I like dessert. In my mind what is the point of having a meal if it is not the reason to get through it to have dessert?
Think of what your favorite banana split would have. How would you make it? Would you have vanilla ice cream or maybe you are someone who has to have chocolate? Hot fudge or Carmel? Maybe you don’t like bananas so your perfect banana split has no banana at all. (side note, is that even a banana split then? We can debate that later.) What if you don’t like dessert at all. First off, if that is the case good for you but just know that if you don’t like dessert you don’t like about 50% of the food that I eat so we might have to find a new topic to talk about.
The point is, everyone has a different version of what they think the PERFECT banana split is for them. Our tastes are different and what we want out of a banana is different for almost everyone. Does that mean your version of a banana split is worse than mine? Well, only if you put cherries on it. I mean, come one who does that?!?! 🙂
The answer is no, perfect is in the eye of the beholder. One of the challenges families face today is what we think a perfect family is in our society. Just scroll down on that phone of yours I am sure you will see pictures of what we wish our family was like. That picture of the family with their feet in the water at the beach all in matching shirts and smiling. Everyone smiling and holding hands while the sun sets in the background.
This is a great picture and I hope this family has this printed out and above the fireplace at home. But the perfect family is not something that is a set definition. Your family is your own banana split. Yours may be one with a lot of nuts (you see what I did there) or it might be one with lots of cool whip (with emphasis on the h. Cool Whhhip.). The point is your version of perfect is going to different than mine. We come from different backgrounds, we have different goals, and we all have different talents we bring to our families.
Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect.
Lao Tzu
It is time we started to look to define and find what our version of perfect is for our own family. As we look to define this we need to understand that this version of perfect for you. Our family will not be without faults and challenges but they can still be perfect for us. The goal of any family should be in part to become better together. Everyone plays a role to get the family to the goal of our own version of a perfect family.
The goal of FamilyLead is to give you ideas, to make you ask the right questions, and to give you tools to help you create your version of perfect in your family. To give you a community where you can come together with others to get ideas and see that perfect has many different versions. The only version of perfect that is important and matters is your version.
This does not mean we are without fault. A perfect family is not one that does not have any issues they are working on or trying to get better. It is a family that works with what they have and creates a culture where all involved feel loved. It is up to us to create our own work of art. We have the power to create our perfect family.