10 Rules to Guide Your Family
Adapted from the Dream Big Podcast with Bob Goff and Friends, Podcast #46 Dreaming for Justice, April 22, 2020
John Cotton Richmond serves as the Ambassador-At-Large Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He co-founded the Human Trafficking Institute that exists to decimate modern slavery at its source by empowering police and prosecutors to use victim-centered and trauma-informed methods to hold traffickers accountable and ensure survivors are treated with respect and care. Retrieved from the U.S. Department of State website, state.gov.
10 Rules to Guide Your Family
1. Please God.
We are created for His sake. Don’t build your own legacy. We are His legacy. Stop trying to be important and just love your neighbors.
2. Honor the Intuitive Space in Life.
Keep moms and grandmothers smiling. Honor their intuition. You are always successful if you and your partner are in alignment.
3. People are more important than stuff.
This idea of if you ever have to decide between stuff or people, the default decision should be for people. As young children, this started with sharing. As you grow older, you are making decisions about possessions. Are these things we want going to serve us or are we going to serve them?
4. Speak truth and love.
Everything you say should follow two tests: it needs to be true and it needs to be loving. You may not like the dinner that our friends made for us, but you need to appreciate the fact that they took the time and the effort to serve it to us. Kids need to understand this and thank those who are preparing the dinner. Be loving in what is true.
5. Feelings are not actions.
Just because you feel something earnestly, does not direct what we do. Don’t deny your feelings but also don’t act on them. This comes with maturity. Feelings do not decide what you do.
6. Know how to stop.
Life has limits. Everything is more fun when you follow those limitations. When you are learning how to ride a bike or you are learning how to fly a plane, it is much more fun if you know how to stop. Know how to stop. (Examples: eating, drinking, gardening, exercising, etc.). It is the last kid that stops roughhousing that always gets in trouble.
7. Finish the job.
This is how you handle your work ethic. You finish the season in your sports team. You make sure you empty the entire dishwasher. Don’t cut corners. Whatever your task is at the end of the day, be a person who finished their job.
8. Know your name.
This is a sense of identity. You are not defined by your worst act, or if you get cut from a team, or make a bad grade. You are also not defined by your best acts. You are defined by your Creator. Know your name. You are on Team (last name). Having this identity will help you be able to withstand anything. Let go of the negative assumptions of what people tell you.
9. Happen to your life.
Beyond goals, it is about control versus influence. There is so much in life that we do not have control over. When you think about the happenings in your life, it is directly related to influence you have over it. In other words, having influence about what is going to happen. If things come together, good things will happen. How you respond to what you can’t control is the influence you have over your life. If opportunity knocks, you are ready to make the big decision.
10. Make wrong things right.
We are all called to justice. All justice is, is making wrong things right. It can be as simple as picking up litter and throwing it in the trash can, or sitting with the kid at the lunch table who is isolated. Everyone has an opportunity to make a wrong thing right.
