By Shawn Smith
Parents want to leave a legacy and build a positive culture for their children, and that’s no different for husband-and-wife team former NFL long snapper Andrew East and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson.
On their recent podcast “Couple Things With Shawn and Andrew” they described their process of deciding what their family values are.
“Shawn and I have done many different versions of counseling, of therapy, of workshops, of…like business planning,” Andrew said. “[Y]ou’ll hear business people talk about the most important thing is to have values.”
The term “values” stuck out to him as a father of three — Drew Hazel, 5, Jett, 4, and Barrett, 1 — and he realized that principle should apply to the family as well.
“It was after we did this three-day workshop that I fully understood what family values can reflect, which are really the operating system and the DNA of a family,” Andrew recalled.
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“So the way we did that was over the course of three days…Shawn and I individually talked through scenarios where we felt most alive, where we felt like we were flourishing the most,” he explained.
For Andrew one example was college football and for Shawn it was hosting, and they took those examples and delved into what it was about those activities that they enjoyed.
“And so college football was like, Okay, there’s team. There’s a team involved. It was high energy. It was all people who were eager to get better,” the Indiana native said.
“Shawn really likes thoughtful…company, or philosophical conversations,” he went on to say.
From this analysis, they distinguished patterns and from there a list of five family values: playfulness, faithfulness, curiosity, generous stewardship and togetherness.
“So those are the East family values, and we have them framed on our wall in the playroom,” he said. “When we’re in there, and I don’t know what to talk to the kids about, we’ll just kind of talk about some of the family values. That’s where I’ve noticed the biggest impact in having this stuff have traction with three young kids who are now 5, 4 and 1.”
“Sometimes you don’t know what to do, so you pull out your phone and scroll through social media, and I’m trying to fight against that as much as possible,” the 33-year-old continued. “So in those moments where I don’t know what to do, I’m like, ‘Ah, what can we talk about?’ And maybe it’s a Bible verse, or maybe it’s the fruits of the Spirit, or maybe it’s family values, but it’s kind of fun to start teaching them about this.”
Followers of Shawn’s Instagram will see plenty of the playful side of the East family as gold medalist posts funny and relatable funny bits about married and family life.
In one video shows the couple acting out a heated discussion, with the caption that reads, “POV: me carefully trying to express my feelings to my husband without arguing.”
It’s followed by a clip of a teddy bear shooting pool, but instead of hitting a ball into the pocket, the cue ball flies off the table and knocks down a picture frame from the wall.
The latest venture for the couple will put their athletic skills to the test as they recently announced that they will appear on the fourth season of SPECIAL FORCES: WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST along with 16 other contestants including Teresa Giudice, Gia Giudice, Brittany Cartwright, Kody Brown and Jessie James Decker.
Shawn couldn’t spill many details but did say that the challenges they faced were real, and despite her face getting beaten by other contestants, added “we’re literally all bonded for life.”
“There’s no scripting to it, you’re just hanging on for dear life trying not to die legitimately. Zero scriptedness,” she revealed.
You can watch the Easts and fellow contestants battle it out in SPECIAL FORCES Thursday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
Read Next: Olympic Gold Medalist Shares How She Introduces Her Kids to Faith
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