Five Steps to Make Your Family Stronger

The Bible is filled with wonderful principles and steps to make your family stronger!  Just to make it a bit more interesting and practical for everyone, our definition of Family has two versions.  BOTH important:

We all have a “LIVE WITH FAMILY” – The people we live with.  Our bio family or roommates.  We all also should have a “WORSHIP WITH FAMILY” – The people we walk in faith with. Our Church family

Here is a GREAT scripture in Hebrews relating to family:

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Hebrews 10:24

We need to collaboratively think about.  We need to Invest in, work at, be creative with our family plan.  You should call a family meeting this week and get everyone’s input.  Kids and adults

Here are the 5 ways to move towards your best family:

1. CHANGE FAMILY ATMOSPHERE TODAY.
   Your family atmosphere can change today!  It will take a while to break habits and culture, BUT you need to grab the idea right now that the atmosphere of the home can change now!  Let’s have a MIND SHIFT about our family life!  Our old way of thinking can say things like:  “My family is a lost cause.  My parenting skills aren’t good enough.  I’m afraid for kids’ future. My parents don’t understand me.”

   Here is where our mind needs to be. “Family is God’s creation and design. He is the designer and builder of family.”

   It was not good for man to be alone, so He created community:

   Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24
   Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” Genesis 4:1

   Since God is the creator and designer of your family,  He is the sole authority on the value and health of your family.   People try all sorts of ideas, strategy, philosophy on how to have a fulfilled family,  but there is really only way to move towards your best family:  Allow God to have his way.  Model your family after His plan!

   Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.    Psalm 127:1

   If you are entering this month on the ropes, and feel like you are near the end of your sanity and family unity, I want to speak some GOOD NEWS! Jesus died to redeem his entire creation!

   Your marriage and family is a part of God’s KINGDOM.  God has the POWER to redeem your family and your home environment.   When it does happen, God will get all the GLORY for it!

   Instead of deciding the future of your family based on all the families around you, let’s base it on the supremacy and sovereignty of God!

   When you are thinking negative thoughts, think…My family is going to make it!… Why???  JESUS!  Even if you have strange family configurations.   Throughout the Bible are half-sisters, step brothers, remarriage.  The Bible is full of Blended, extended, and mended families that found a way to THRIVE through the power of God!

 

2. PRAY FOR, WITH, AND OVER YOUR FAMILY.  Dad and Mom, God created you to be the leaders of the home. Part of that responsibility is to connect your home to God.   When we move into a new home, we make it a priority to connect it to Spectrum or DirecTV.   We make sure we have the best wifi for all those vitally important games and apps and movies. However, most people neglect to connect their home to the most important ‘source’ of power and information…

   PRAYER CONNECTS YOUR HOME TO HEAVEN!

   Here is a great scripture relating to family and prayer:  “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:16

   What a GREAT family scripture.  Apply this to whatever issue comes up in your family.  No better place to confess sin than to your spouse.  Go for it.
   Some of you are not expert/professional prayer warriors.  That’s ok. START SMALL.
   *  Pray at Bed time.
   *  Pray at Dinner time (not just for food poison)
   *  Pray when things come up.
   *  Pray for family in private.  Then tell them!

   Grow to the point where you pray out loud in front of each other.  Pray over them, lay hands on them, Pray scripture over them.  Here is a great scripture you can adapt to pray over your kids:  “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

   Have meaningful discussions with your kids and then simply invite Jesus in on them. He is listening anyway!!

   The commandments I give you today must be in your hearts. Make sure your children learn them. Talk about them when you are at home. Talk about them when you walk along the road. Speak about them when you go to bed. And speak about them when you get up.   Deuteronomy 6:6-7

 

3. EAT MORE MEALS TOGETHER.  Eating together is healing to kids and adults.  It takes planning and energy to eat together. It takes commitment, but it pays off.   We all need to add this rule to the dinner table:  No electronics rule at the dinner table!

   Check out this research:

• A report by CASA found that teens who have between five and seven  family dinners per week were twice as likely to report receiving mostly A’s and B’s in school,
• In 2008, researchers at Brigham Young University conducted a study of IBM employees and found that sitting down to a family meal helped working moms reduce the tension and strainfrom long hours at the office.

 

4. COMMIT TO THE NEXT 4 SUNDAYS.   Don’t miss a Sunday in Month!  Start a new habit of gathering with your family and other believers…weekly!  Don’t let it be an accident or coincidence!

• The Sleep Health Journal reported that adults who attend church exhibit healthier sleep outcomes than those who don’t.” For some of you that is because you sleep IN church!
• According JAMA Psychiatry: “women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide.”
• The National Health and Social Life Survey, (the most detailed analysis of sexual behavior in America) found that “Married adults who worshiped weekly were more likely to report enjoying sexual relations with their spouse. “ 

 

5. JOIN A SMALL GROUP.  “It takes a village to raise a family.”  Who is in your village?   We all need an upline, a downline and a sideline.  You can find people like this organically and then build relationships with them on your own.  However, most people struggle with this so the church has intentionally formed groups of  people and make it extremely easy for you to connect with them!  If you are in the PromiseLand church community, click here for a list of groups you could join.