What is a Family?
A perfect family is not achievable. There will always be disagreements and the clashing of wills. However, through Christ a home filled with grace, forgiveness, and love is achievable.
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?
A perfect family is not achievable. There will always be disagreements and the clashing of wills. However, through Christ a home filled with grace, forgiveness, and love is achievable.
Life is complex. Our world is more complicated than it was even 20 or 30 years ago. Even though many of the values we grew up with now seem passé, the basics never change—they’re summarized in Micah 6:8, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Chuck Swindoll affirms a reasonably good marriage may not sound exciting but it’s both real and achievable. Marriage enhances life because you’re in it together. The world keeps changing but God’s design for marriage hasn’t. It’s the basis of the family and even society.
Whether it’s your family, friends, job, or home, everything you have is from God. Look within—are you more enamoured with the gifts God gives you than with God Himself?
At times we all find the route God has chosen for us doesn’t make a lot of sense. Especially when life takes a turn we don’t expect. But as Chuck Swindoll says, “Welcome to God’s World.”
A hero is someone who is admired for his achievements, noble qualities, and courage. This definition isn’t limited to dads—even if you’ve never heard it, moms and dads, you are your children’s heroes.
Want some great advice for building a happy home? These four two-word one-liners will help you keep your family first.
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.
Join Pastor Chuck Swindoll as he retraces the steps of Abraham and his beloved son, Isaac. Observe how Abraham’s response to God was immediate, based upon faith alone, and total. Heaven’s commands come with heaven’s provision!
Children learn by repetition. You have to do it over and over until it’s habit. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a lasting legacy is worth a million. Do you have any legacy stones in your life right now? If not, it’s time to create a few.