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9 characteristics of strong, resilient families. 1. The table is the central place of their fellowship together. Not the TV. Not the car. Not the bleachers at a sports game. The table. They regularly sit down and eat dinner together at least 5 times per week. 2. The family has a mission beyond rest and entertainment. Everyone, husband, wife, and children, plays their part in this mission. Homeschooling, a small business, radical hospitality, farming, charity, whatever. 3. Their table is open to those outside the family. They are hospitable. What they have, they seek to share, whether it's food or conversation. Kids who grow up in hospitable families, entertaining strangers, grow up with better tools to handle different types of people. 4. The father leads the home. The father takes on sacrificial responsibility and takes the initiative. The wife and children respond willingly because they know he loves them. The wife is not nagging, but offers feminine counsel 5. No one harbors bitterness. When problems arise, they are communicated openly and discussed honestly. No record of wrongs is kept. Apologies come quickly, and forgiveness is given freely. 6. When one member wins, everyone wins. If something good happens to one member of the family, everyone rejoices as if it happened to them. Encouragement and celebration come easy to the lips. Envy is killed and buried. 7. The children are disciplined in the context of love. It is discipline that tells the child he/she belongs. It is discipline that will ensure a legacy lasts beyond one generation. It is discipline that keeps outside enemies from crushing the family at its weakest point. 8. The husband and wife are faithful to each other. If the marriage fails, the family fails. Without a strong marriage, a family is just a pile of bricks with no mortar. Someone else might be able to come along and pick up the pieces, but it will never be the same. 9. All members have a higher loyalty to God. The standard lives outside of all of them and is higher than all of them. No one is above it, and so they all share a common submission, something beautiful and true.