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Getting a Family Makeover
 Makeovers- you’ve seen them on television. An average looking Jane goes behind the curtain where she is attacked by a swarm of beauticians and fashion experts. Then bing, bang, boom she saunters out looking hotter than a Mexican tamale as we all watch in amazement and envy.
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"It's important to dwell on family strengths because it gives family members a chance to see what they are already successfully achieving."
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There’s something about a makeover that seems to symbolize a new beginning, a chance to push aside past disappointments and try again. Just like the first day of a new year, the initial blush of a diet, or the day the kids go back to school after a long summer, fresh starts can be invigorating and exciting. That’s the reason I decided that my family needed a makeover.
My husband and I gathered our children together and announced our plan for a family makeover. My teenage daughter was thrilled. “I’ve always wanted to be a blond?” she said flipping her hair around with enthusiasm.
“Sorry kid,” I said. “It’s not that kind of a makeover.”
Dr. Henry Isaksen in his book How to Get Your Kids to Clean Their Rooms and Other Impossible Tasks talks about the importance of giving children the opportunity to do for themselves the things they are capable of doing. He explains that it fosters a sense of responsibility.
This convinced me that, like most children, ours not only had the ability to change their behavior but also the ability to recognize the need to do so. What I as a parent had to do was provide the right opportunity.
Evaluate
Before a beautician attempts to do a makeover it is essential for her to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of her subject. For example, “Jane has pretty brown hair but she wears it long and straggly giving her a kind of ‘see what the cat dragged in’ look.”
In the same way, the first step in our family makeover was to evaluate the strengths we already had and the weaknesses we needed to work on. In an attempt to give some order to our discussion, we broke our evaluation into six areas: educational, financial, emotional, spiritual, physical and social.
My husband and I wanted our children to take the lead in this project, however, in so doing we felt a little nervous. We were unsure if they would take the project seriously. Surprisingly, our children were not only insightful in their family assessments but enthusiastic as well.
It’s important to dwell on family strengths, not just weaknesses, because it gives family members a chance to see the things that they are already successfully achieving. For our family it was reassuring to see that we were doing many things right.
We learned that we were consistent at weekly family home evenings and daily family prayers. Homework was generally done on time and we all felt comfortable talking to each other. However, we needed to work on the children’s daily personal prayers, their inappropriate teasing, and, as my daughter put it, “basically we’re all slobs.”
Set A Goal
Once a beautician has evaluated her client she then needs to decide which makeover style she is going for. Does Jane want to be glamorous and professional, exotic and alluring, or fresh and wholesome?
In the same way, a family needs to look at its strengths and weaknesses and decide what it wants the outcome of the makeover to be.
>> View the Complete Article Here
By Deanne Savage-Blackhurst LDSLiving Magazine Jan/Feb Issue
>> Click Here for Information about LDS Living Magazine
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 Gladys Knight CD
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