Bruce Feiler is a normal guy, just like you or me. He puts his pants on one leg at a time, he has to brushes his teeth, and occasionally spends more time on the internet than he probably should. Another thing that makes Bruce a lot like you and me is the fact that he doesn't always have a well-functioning family unit. In his attention-catching article, "The Stories That Bind Us," he describes a scene of complete chaos that ensued his rebuke of one of his nephews at a family dinner.
Unlike most of us, Bruce used this scene to do something quite incredible. He spent years researching and uncovering information about how to make teams, specifically families, function better. What he learned during these years is even more incredible and unexpected: families that have a stronger family narrative tend to be much more stable.
Bruce discovered this surprising information by interviewing the famed Dr. Marshall Duke from Emory University. Dr. Duke had spent years studying kids to find which kids were the most stable. It turns out, according to his research, that kids who know the history of their family tend to be much more stable.
For most people, this is incredibly surprising. However, it is important to note that these findings aren't that far from what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches. The Church puts particular importance in the work of genealogy, or the study of one's family. This helps members of the church create strong family narratives. It means family traditions and knowledge of what has happened in the family's past is very prevalent among even the children of the family. This heralds back to a scripture that is very familiar to the members of The Church, which states that the hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers. Well, Mormons, it looks like you did it again. Way to focus on building up those families.
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