Tag: family support

Family is Important to God

Have you ever wondered why family is so important to God. From the beginning of the Bible, you can see that God wanted to be able to enjoy the benefits of family. Following God’s example, we should value it too. 

The family unit is a part of our lives that we don’t regularly attend to. While we plan for a lot of things when it comes to our social life and our career life, when it comes to our family there can be a lack of planning. 

In recent years there has been more of a push to have balance in life. People are recognizing the value of family. They don’t want to work 60 or 70 hours a week. There are too many stories out there of successful people who worked so hard, but in the process they lost their marriages, families, health or a combination of things. 

We can plan everything in our lives, but still leave our family out Click To Tweet

Why work so hard to achieve a financial or career status and get there not have anyone to enjoy it with?  The family unit is important for 3 reasons.

 

  1. The foundation

 

Our families are foundational to our lives. When everything can seem like it is going out of control, your family can serve as an anchor in the storm. Christians are often referred to as the Body of Christ. Showing that we are all connected. 

 

  1. Support & Celebrate

 

We know how valuable a support group can be. When we need support to get through a difficult situation our family members tend to be the ones to pick us up. The same can be said of when we celebrate significant moments in our life. Think of the milestone birthdays, the promotions, the bonuses, marriages, children being born and all the things that are important to us. Who are the people that are most likely to be there and celebrate with us? Family. 

 

  1. God at the Center

 

When it comes to organizing and evaluating our lives, it makes it easy to compartmentalize everything. We can treat our lives like rooms in a house. One room is our career.  A room for our family. The basement is where all the things we don’t want to deal with go. There’s a room for our emotions and there is a room for God. 

What we have failed to realize is that God is in every room. He is the foundation that our house is built on. God doesn’t want to be regulated to just one room. He wants to be involved in every area of life. 

 

Discussion Question:

Why is family important to you?

Dealing with Hurt

It’s rare that strangers hurt your feelings. The people that can hurt you the most are those that are closest to us. That usually tends to be family members. What do we do in those situations? How do we handle it?

Frustrated

My Experience

So, there I was reading an email from a family member about a potential business opportunity and I can see that it included all the previous emails. Not really expecting to find anything, I read some information that is personal and doesn’t pertain to this opportunity. 

Reading this, I felt the full range of emotions. Feelings of  anger, that negative things were being revealed about me to sad and disappointed that someone close to me would portray me that way. 

It’s sad to say that most of us have had an experience where we  overheard something we weren’t meant to hear or saw a Facebook post that  revealed personal information. How do we handle these situations? What do we do with those feelings?

 

  1. Separate actions and feelings

 

The Bible talks about us being angry and not sinning. It’s okay to be angry and have the emotions but we have to separate the emotions from driving our actions. 

Think to yourself how many times you’ve gotten back at someone and felt better about yourself or what you did. Revenge, hurting someone because they hurt you, never makes you feel better about yourself. 

Having our emotions drive our actions does more damage to us than we could do to the other person. The mentality, emotions and actions can lead to destructive pattern of behaviors. 

 

  1. Evaluate the relationship

 

I’m not an advocate for cutting everyone out of your life for any reason. There are times, however, when you may need to dissolve a relationship for your betterment. In other cases, if we let our emotions drive us we can be too quick to cut people out of our lives. 

To know the difference, we have to do step 1. We have to separate the emotions of the event that happened, with our actions. Evaluate the relationship outside of your emotions. Is this person adding value to your life? Could there be a possibility that the relationship could be salvaged? 

 

  1. When they go low, we go high

 

Former First Lady Michelle Obama made this phrase famous in a speech. It very much can apply to when we are hurt by those closest to us. Sometimes it is  better to leave the situation completely. Take the high road and just move on with your life. 

 

Discussion Question:

How do handle when people hurt you?

The Value of a Support Group

Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you. - Misty Copeland Click To Tweet

I am the oldest of five in my family. On my mother’s side of the family, I have five sets of aunts and uncles, who each have at least five kids. We’re all older now and have our own families and kids. As you know I have pretty decent size immediate family and a bigger and growing extended family.

Father and Kids
Loving Father

My immediate family is very close and we’ve all stayed close as we have grown up. At the time I didn’t know that every family wasn’t close. Going to college, making new friends, and working in the social work field, I came to know how fortunate I was to have this growing up. The support that I have received from my family over the years has been priceless.

Not everyone has that family support, but now that I have a family of my own I want to provide this type of support for my spouse, children. This family support is so important. Here are three ways that family support is valuable:

 

  1. Support is not always family

 

I mentioned it above, but it bears repeating. I had and continue to have a strong support system from my family. What I came to realize is that not everyone has their family as a support system.

When family isn’t an option you have to have the support system that is made up of friends. We sometimes think that our support system has to automatically be our family. That’s not a guarantee. Look at all of your family and friends and take an inventory on who is adding value to your life. Those that are adding the most value will be the ones who make up your support system.

 

  1. Support helps you cope

 

Life can be stressful. There are so many aspects, situations, and parts of life that can be stressful for us. It feels like the weight of the world can be on your shoulders. As close as we can think that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, makes us, it also isolates us. We may be on social media, but we tend to have more feelings of isolation than genuine connections.

This is where our support system is crucial. They are the people that will talk with us on the phone, counsel us, calm us, and help us to see the ray of sunshine when everything looks cloudy and dark.

 

  1. Support is Personal

 

When you don’t have a support group it can be hard to begin to develop one. Developing a support group requires time and effort. Both of which you have to carry the load of until the relationship is established. Establishing those relationships requires personable interactions. Commenting on posts is great, but for a lasting relationship and a support system to be established requires that you may have to go through hard times together.

Hard times and good times are what make the foundation of a support system. People that will celebrate with you when things are good, but will also be there when you need picking up are priceless.

 

Discussion Question:

How have you developed your support system?