By Richard Eyre

Meridian now has readers in 196 countries. While a high percentage are LDS, more and more interest is building among other faiths and the half a million unique readers who visit the site each month are becoming increasingly diverse culturally, socially, politically and economically.

What unites us all?  Certainly our various forms of faith and a desire to view the world from a spiritual perspective.  And one other connected thing — our desire to teach our children fundamental values and to live by these values in our families despite the world’s movement away from them.

Perhaps there is no more universal and uniting factor on earth than the common hopes, concerns and emotions that all conscientious parents everywhere feel for their children and the desire we all have for them to embrace and live by the basic values that we know will increase their chances for happy and productive lives 

These values are not controversial, at least not among caring parents and loving families.  They are principles like Honesty, Respect, Courage, Self Discipline, and Fidelity. The question is not what we want to teach our children, but how.  How do we implant solid values in children who are growing up in an environment where the powerful influences of peer group, media, and technology pull so hard in other directions?

Meridian Magazine is proud to announce, in connection with valuesparenting.com and our long- time contributors Richard and Linda Eyre, the MERIDIAN FAMILY VALUE OF THE MONTH.

Imagine the power of half a million readers, spread throughout the world, focusing on the same value each month, and sharing online with each other the ideas and the methods that have worked for them (along with the concerns and challenges they are trying to overcome with their own children.)

Imagine the comfort and confidence we can each receive, knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of other families working on the same value as we are each month.  Imagine the benefit to our children who will benefit from the collective wisdom of parents all over the world.

Here's how it will work:

1. On the first day of each month, Meridian will feature Richard and Linda Eyre's overview of the Meridian Family Value of the Month — a thorough examination of that month's specific and particular value and an outline of the basic methods for implementing and teaching it in our individual homes. (See the Meridian feature story on the Eyres from June 24.)  

2.  Regularly, for the rest of the month, Meridian will feature further teaching ideas for various age children and activities for families that implant the value.

3.  Readers from throughout the world will send in their own thoughts, feelings, and things that have worked for them on living and teaching the Value of the Month, and these will be posted in the Meridian Family Value of the Month Workshop page.

4.  Readers who want additional help will be able to click directly to the Eyres’ www.valuesparenting.com site.

5.  Neither Meridian Magazine or the Eyres want to have any proprietary interest or exclusivity on the Family Value of the Month.  In fact, we will encourage other entities, from clubs to communities to businesses, to adopt the Family Value of the Month as their own.  (Imagine the Rotary Family Value of the Month, or the Hopkinton, New Hampshire Family Value of the Month, or the Wal-Mart Family Value of the Month).  There is strength, of course, in numbers, not to mention additional creativity and motivation.  

6.  The program will start in August (a month when many families spend a lot of time together) with the value of COURAGE.  The agenda for the rest of the year will be: 

September:  The Family Value of PEACEABILITY
October: SELF-RELIANCE AND POTENTIAL
November: SELF-DISCIPLINE AND MODERATION
December: FIDELITY AND CHASTITY
January: LOYALTY AND DEPENDABILITY
February: RESPECT
March: LOVE
April: UNSELFISHNESS AND SENSATIVITY
May: KINDNESS AND FRIENDLINESS
June: JUSTICE AND MERCY
July: HONESTY. 

So, tune in here, on August 1, as we launch this attempt not only to further unite all Meridian families, but to do our small part in saving this world in the only way it can be saved — one family at a time.