Keep Family First
Want some great advice for building a happy home? These four two-word one-liners will help you keep your family first.
Family
Family
Living harmoniously as a family is an ongoing, intentional journey. The beginning of that journey is marked by great anticipation and genuine excitement. A bride and groom have high hopes and great dreams as they start out life together. However, as in all journeys, unexpected challenges pop up, including the arrival of children, which requires the couple to cultivate valuable parenting skills—without a handbook! At each age, from preschool through elementary school, each child requires his or her parents to make adjustments along the way to keep the relationships harmonious. Just about the time parents get their arms around all of that, the teenage years arrive! This stretching and complicated time calls for even more adjustments and a greater willingness to change if the parents hope to sustain harmony in the home. Then, after all that adapting, a new set of challenges arrives—the children reach adulthood, with minds of their own. Can there still be mutual respect and meaningful relationships in the family? Can harmony continue between parents and their grown-up kids? Absolutely! The question is, how?
Cultivating Your Family
What are your priorities? It takes work to cultivate a family and make a happy home, but the long-term rewards are worth every effort.
Being There
Your child needs you to help know who he is. Parents, spend more time affirming and encouraging your child for what he does right than for disciplining and correcting for what he does wrong. Children get security from their parents to know who they are, to like who they are, and to be who they are.
Building Esteem in Children
Want a confident family? Focus on building into each other a sense of worth and value. Chuck Swindoll shares one way his family builds into each other when words just aren't enough.
Twelve Important Words
These 12 important words from Chuck Swindoll are helpful for those who are in a transition time. These words, put into practice, will leave you more secure, self-confident, and not afraid to fly free.
Parenting Guilt
Parents, you’re only human. Everyone makes mistakes. But stay at it. Your family needs you!
On Affairs and Marriage
Infidelity destroys everything in its path—marriages, families, and the future. One of the greatest gifts you can give to your spouse and your family is your fidelity.
Respect and Obedience
Chuck’s grandfather modelled grace during a disastrous driving lesson. His words made a lasting impression on Chuck who has taught about God’s grace for almost 50 years. It’s a good reminder that our words matter.
When You Need Forgiveness
Isn’t it great when someone says, “I forgive you”…just like that? Without pleading or begging for mercy, we’re simply forgiven. That’s probably one of the best feelings in the world.
The Importance of Interludes
It’s important to set time aside to put your priorities together and focus on the essentials of life. Essentials like family. It’s never too late to mend relationships with your parents or siblings or children. Don’t die with broken relationships.
