In Our House

How would your family  finish this sentence; “In our house…”

I have listened over the years, in a variety of clinical settings, to young women and many girls finish that sentence. What happens and does not happen in our home lays a foundation and creates a framework for understanding ourselves and our core relationships, for much of our adult life.

If you haven’t thought about what happens in your home, let me invite you to start thinking about what those in your family experience in their life together. What are the values, priorities and practices that flow through your home and your relationships on a day to day basis. The hardest things for us to keep track of, are the things we do most naturally. What does your family naturally do with conflict, with failure, with fear, with change, with loss, with celebration, with pressure, with forgiveness, with faith, with doubt? Spoken or unspoken, there is a “dance” that each family does in response to life’s burdens and blessings. Don’t passively wait to see what happens. Actively declare to yourself and one another, what you are going to value, love and pursue in your home. These should not be easy and polite slogans but heartfelt convictions that you will work out and walk out together.

IN OUR HOUSE:

We do second chances
We do grace
We do real
We do mistakes
We do I’m sorry
We do loud really well
We do hugs
We do Family
We do love
We do thank you
We do laughter
We do respect
We do faith

If we can ask the question, then real dialogue begins and that can lead to new places in our home and how we each make a contribution to where we are going.  We ask because we are secure about what Christ wants for our home — goodness.