Building Good Family Relationships

Remember that old saying, "The family that sticks together, stays together"? Before I go on, my purpose for writing this article is to emphasize the importance of developing strong family relationships and being closely involved with the lives of every member in the family.

The posterity of our generation depends on how we treat and manage our homes. The future of your children and the next generations to come hangs in the balance and if you see that there are traits or habits or influences that can lead them to destruction and make them suffer in the long run, it is better that you give more attention to them.

Immediately cut those bad traits, habits, or influences so that it will not propagate and cause dire consequences. Because if you love your generation and the next, you must do the right thing for their good so that they will reap the benefits of your actions.

The family is the most fundamental institution in society and the home is the place for growth and development. Every lesson in life should be taught in the home by the parents and every learning experience must be shared by the family.

They must be a child's main support system and the ones who would provide a child with a conducive environment for developing the right habits and attitudes and also for shaping their minds to judge prudently what is right from wrong and choose to do the right thing.

Wisdom must come from the parents and the elders in the family. They must impart these words of advice to serve as a guide for the children to know their way.

Not only that, the family needs to be a spiritual training ground for children to help them realize the truth of God and to teach them to love God and embrace God's love and faithfulness in their lives through Jesus Christ. This is important. No family would be complete without God.

In my life, I have had to face different challenges especially in my family. One issue that teenagers would usually have in common is their parents.

Rebellion seems very attractive nowadays and it spawns itself more prominently in the youth who have been corrupted and led astray by influences in pop culture and social media. Peers influence them to disobey their parents and explore the world fueled by their curiosity and selfish desires.

I would admit that I had issues with my parents before. Just like the rest of the mainstream crowd of youth in the world, I rebelled against my parents for a time. It was during my senior year in high school where the worst was brought out of me.

I had trouble juggling my academics with everything else in my life and it showed. I started to have the wrong sleeping patterns and I fell to certain temptations. Oftentimes, I would get frustrated with my parents to which I would respond either with blatant ignorance or shameless rudeness and disrespect.

There were times when I talked back at them and raised my voice against them as if I knew more than they. But then I started to realize that this kind of attitude was damaging my life and making it even worse than I thought it would.

Suddenly, God came into the picture and intervened in my life. He revealed my sins to my mother at which point she assertively confronted them and by the grace of God, I repented.

The process was not immediate. I did not become patient overnight and I still fell to some temptations but what changed in me was that I knew and recognized how much God loves me and how much my parents love me so much so that they had to sacrifice certain luxuries to provide for my needs.

When Jesus entered into my life, I started to see things from His perspective and I was totally renewed in mind, heart, and spirit. I never, and I mean, never, retaliated against my parents nor talked back at them or rebelled against them.

I never fell to temptation again and I started to grow close to my parents once again. Obedience became much easier for me to do until became quite natural.Sometimes delays still happen when they command me to do something but I still do them anyway with respect and wholehearted willingness.

I also started to become more passionate in worshiping God and developing a deep relationship with Him which was also due to my parents as well since they brought me into the realization that I need to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.

Before they told me that, however, I already had certain convictions in my heart to do so but they were ultimately the ones to help me to enter into that relationship with Christ.

I am so grateful to my parents for supporting me in making that decision and for Jesus in changing me to have a good relationship with my parents. I thank Him for allowing me to see my life through His eyes and for helping me get closer to my mom and dad.

Now, I pray for them that they may have less instances of quarreling with one another on the most trivial things and on each other's faults. I hope that God would bring them closer to each other and to ignite the fire of love in their hearts so that it would burn brighter than before.

It is important to develop a strong godly foundation in your family because that will set you on the course toward God's perfect plan for your life.

I believe that God has blessings galore in store for each and every family and household that chooses to serve Him faithfully and that God will use families to bring change in our society.

God is at work every day of our lives and I pray that He would continue to work in your family just as He is in mine for the Bible tells us that God works together for the good of those who love Him, whom He has called according to His purpose.

On that note, I believe that the saying should go more like this, "The family that prays together, stays together." God bless!