Before home renovations, your home looks like it always did—a little dated here, a little worn out there. After home renovations, your home looks like a magazine, feels like dream, and smells like a breath of fresh air.
As families, we experience a similar newness and satisfaction with our family renovations. Before working on our family relationships, we feel stuck in unhealthy, unhappy patterns and doubtful that lasting change is possible. After improving our family relationships, we feel successful and encouraged, and we think, “we should have done this a long time ago!”
Before and after the #DIYFamilyBook
My co-author, Dr. Gary Chapman and I are not literal home improvement experts; we’re home life improvement experts. Helping families build lasting relationships is our calling and commitment! And that’s why we wrote The DIY Guide to Building a Family That Lasts–to help families “demo” (demolish) the not-so-great home life issues that stress them out and build new-and-improved ways of being with each other. For some families, this may mean that the book guides them to “fix up” their old home life and save it from ruin. For other families whose home life is “ok,” applying principles from the book can help them take it up a level…from good to great! And, for families who say, “we’re already great,” first, congratulations, and second, the DIY Family Book will help reinforce your healthy habits.
Planning, DIY’ing, all-in, and sweat equity
Gary and I tried to speak to a variety of family issues in hopes of helping as many families as possible. But, ultimately, this is an interactive book! That is, you have to actively implement the relationship-building and relationship-healing tools we’ve shared to see results. Why? Because, wishing for better relationships is ok; working to build better relationships is better! Same with our literal homes. Many of us wish for an amazing home make-over, but work, not wishes alone, will get the job done! We’ve got to go from wishing to working to having the home life we’re dreaming of!
To help you in your home life improvement efforts, you’ll find tips on the following in each chapter of the book:
- planning for desired change
- DIY’ing (which is YOU taking the lead by modeling for your family the change you desire for you and them)
- going “all in” together as a family, and
- putting in the sweat equity that change will require
And, all this for what?! For the “big reveal” you’re hoping to accomplish, and for the good feeling of remembering the “before” and celebrating the “after!”
Remembering the before, celebrating the after
A really cool tool inside the DIY Family Book is the Home Life Inspection Quiz (HLIQ). This short quiz will help you thoughtfully assess your family’s current home life situation—your family’s “before.” Then, with that as a starting point, you can prioritize the areas of your home life that need the most demo’ing and renovation. As you accomplish change, you can and should return to the HLIQ many times over the years to re-assess and reprioritize your home life improvement to-do list. And, of course, as you experience increased satisfaction in your home life, the HLIQ can also remind you to celebrate big reveals—your family’s “after.”
We want to hear from you
When you write a book, you hope and pray readers will like the book and that the book will add value to their lives. You, though, will be the judge! Gary and I look forward to hearing your reaction to the DIY Family Book. We hope it encourages and equips you to think about your before and work toward your after with hope and confidence. And, yes, just like we had fun writing the book, we hope you have fun reading it! We look forward to hearing about your many “big reveals” for years to come!
God bless you and your family!
Your DIY coach and fellow DIY’er,
Shannon
PS1: You’ll find Gary and me on social media at @DrShannonWarden and @DrGaryChapman. Also look for us on social media at #DIYFamilyBook. And, please share your thoughts on the DIY Family Book by posting a review on Amazon and other bookstores’ websites. Thanks for helping us get the word out in these ways!!
PS2: I really appreciate you making time to read my Hope to Build On blog! If you’ve not joined my email list, I’d love for you to join. I don’t send out a lot of emails, and I absolutely never will share your email address with anyone else. So, join, ok!
PS3: Watch my YouTube series, Family All the Way with Dr. Shannon Warden. In it, I show you the process of my family’s house being built, and in each episode, I talk about how building a house and building relationships is similar. Thanks for watching!
Before and after renovating your family relationships with The DIY Guide to Building a Family That Lasts
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