Dear DLA Families!
Happy February and Happy Habit 5!
This new Leader in Me habit states: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. I love this habit and I'm going to be working on it my whole life.
When I was a little girl, my family used to speak The Prayer of Saint Francis after dinner during family devotions.
The first line says:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
The second part continues with:
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
As the youngest of 4 kids, I was working on memorizing that thing at first. Then, it began (and continues) to sink in. "Hey, I'm supposed to really value the other person I'm with. Value them first. Honestly hear their perspective, without secretly yelling my own viewpoint in my head as I pretend to listen to theirs."
This month at our DLA homes, let's memorize The Prayer of Saint Francis. JUST KIDDING. Let's practice Habit 5; the habit of seeking first to understand others in our family. It's going to look like listening with our mouth shut! We won't interrupt. We will look into the eyes of the person talking to us...not at our phones. We will listen to "hear" their feelings. We have two ears, two eyes, and only one mouth for a very good reason.
Check out these Habit 5 videos:
In closing, let's try a game called Mood Charades:
1. Write several different emotions (happiness, anger, fear, loneliness, frustration, etc) on small pieces of paper and put them in a hat.
2. One family member picks an emotion out of the hat.
3. That family member acts out the mood, while the other family members try to guess the emotion.
Have everybody, take a turn. Students of all ages will play this game well.
You will learn about understanding what others are trying to say by allowing your eyes to carefully observe the speaker's face and body.
Let me know how it's going. Share pictures or stories about Habits @ Home. You can email me at
rkisker@dlaeagles.org.
