from Larry...on behalf of the Bowers

If you were to receive an email from my home email, you would be introduced to it. When you visit my Facebook page, you would also experience it. I trust that if you were to meet me in the normal activities of a normal day, you would normally come across it before too long. These are not accidents or oversights. I have, in fact, chosen to surround myself with examples that point to family identity.

So why do you get an email from ‘The Bower Family’ that can be signed by Larry or Sarah or one of our children? Why does our Facebook site look a bit odd and grammatically incorrect with listings of what “Bower is…doing”? Well, this is a thought for us that continues to be refined and perfected, but this is my attempt to shed some light on our thinking.

Everybody is attached to some kind of a descriptive identity. You are either a man, a college student, a Democrat, an extrovert, good with numbers, in over your head, a bookworm, the third oldest son, an ex-Marine, a Mariners fan, bald, a Muslim, or any number of other possibilities (is there, perhaps, somebody out there who fits all of these listed?!). Moment by moment, we are adjusting the priority level that people place on any particular description that fits us. I can easily switch from trying to convince people that I am capable, then caring, then appreciative, then knowledgeable about some current world event and so on.

As a Christian, I don’t take that particular label lightly. I am identifying with the Christ, the Messiah. It affects the decisions I make, the words I use, the activities I engage in and the thought processes I attach to each of those realities. Scripture is clear that I am no longer identified in the way I formerly was. Everything about me has changed. I am indeed a new creation. But this new creation has many other labels that are attached. And we have choices about the importance that we place on them too.

Here’s my basic premise for this simple attempt at philosophical gymnastics; As a culture, we don’t think highly enough of the family identity that we all have. We are too self-focused and individualized and this shows up in every corner of our lives. Often times, families look to me merely like a collection of individuals who happen to share a surname and an address. Of course, everybody is unique and to a degree that should be celebrated and enjoyed. But I think we can do a better job of forging an identity together as families.

I thoroughly enjoy the differences that Sarah and I have as husband and wife, as I do with each of my children as their father. But I seek to purposely draw us together in key areas while at the same time recognizing each person’s individual contributions. Using our name corporately in most instances is just one way. I want to set the example that I am doing things not just as Larry, but as one of the Bowers. My actions and demeanor reflect to some degree on everybody else in the household. In fact, before I do something, my hope is that I would contemplate its affect on my family. And ‘yes’, I often fail at this. But I, along with those whom I have the privilege of leading, seek to make progress.

So when I create a Facebook page, most everything in me wants to have any visitors or ‘friends’ experience the best of Larry that I can show them. I have a full set of interests, desires, and experiences that I could pattern my little corner of the world wide web after. But instead I choose to let all who happen by know that I am a leader of the Bower family. And we do things together.