That’s it? Well awesome! We’ve got it in the bag then.
Just kidding.
“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” – The Family: A Proclamation to the World
We’ve done a lot of “recreational activities” in our family recently, with it being the holidays.
Which means our levels of “forgiveness” and “patience” are probably a little lower than usual.
Families are the best place to see each other’s weaknesses and strengths, right?
We see our kids’ best qualities and their absolute worst moments.
We see our spouse at their absolute best and their weakest.
And we show our most awesome versions of ourselves, and we make our biggest mistakes.
Which means that together as a family unit, we are gonna have times when we are totally on it, and other times when we have completely fallen off the wagon.
Like, way off the wagon.
Here’s what I’m doing this week, and I encourage you to join me.
When looking at this statement, what is the ONE thing that stands out the most to you as an area your family is doing pretty well?
Give yourself credit for the good things I know you are doing.
(As a note: teaching your family about forgiveness looks a whole lot more like extending forgiveness than teaching a formal lesson on the topic.)
And what is the ONE thing that stands out to you as the area your family can work on improving right now?
If your kids are old enough, you can ask them what they think, too!
Maybe you want to get back into the habit of praying with your spouse.
Maybe you want to get your family involved in working together more.
Maybe you need to stop all the to-do lists and just have more fun together.
Maybe you need to repent from a bad habit all your family members know about, and so you decide to talk to your family about how you are trying to change and want their support.
Getting overwhelmed with everything your family is failing at is about as helpful as getting overwhelmed with all of your weaknesses at the same time.
One step at a time is the best way to walk.
And I think our marriages and families are important enough to spend a little bit of time looking for ways to improve!
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
