Hello Friends ,
Thank you for your time
and insights over the past few posts.
Today we will be
discussing a quote from chapter 21which is entitled “The Meaning and Blessing
of Family Work. Here is the quote…
“Family work is a
lifelong opportunity, essential to the process of becoming like our heavenly
parents. It was not meant to be consistently easy, convenient, or well-managed.
Even parents who appreciate the value of family work get discouraged on the
days it seems fraught with tedium and turmoil.” (pg 219)
I really enjoy this
quote because as a mother to be someday, I see the ideal, and though I know it
will not always be ideal, I hope that it will be perfect. I suppose my point is
this quote brings me back aboard the reality train. However that is a good
thing, not a bad thing. Families are not meant to be perfect in every way or
every moment, and trying to live like that will break everyone who tries to
live that way.
Family life is a beautiful
educational ground for building the character of parent and child alike. As we
work together and learn how to manage the needful aspects of everyday living.
What were some
meaningful memories that you have from doing chores together as a family?
Why do you think working
together as a family can be such a good or bad thing?
I want to be able to be
a blessing to my family someday and be able to balance fun with work. Too much
of either can really throw your life off course.
I suppose as with
everything in life, we need to be able to juggle well the things we need to do
and want to do.
As the quote points out
family life helps us to become like our Heavenly Parents. How so? Well first of
all, they are parents, so as we learn how to be good parents we can look to
them and what they do and have done for us to know how to act. We are given the
opportunity to test our wings as it were as we seek to become parents who love
and give freedoms while teaching and “… nurturing our children in the
admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4 )
Becoming God like is a process and so is parenting, they are beautifully harmonious. The two go together because our God is loving and has such a great desire to see His children successful and happy. We become more like Him each time we choose the higher road and make lovingly selfless choices as we interact with our family members.
What happy family memories do you have?
How can we teach children to be hard workers, yet actively and visibly convey our love for each of them?
"Perfection" is an interesting concept. We are told to be perfect. But trying to be perfect will drive anyone mad, and trying to force perfection in a family will cause it to break apart. Perfection is, I believe, an attitude of love and hopefulness.
ReplyDeleteI remember first learning to weed the garden, then learning to weed quickly. First mowing the lawn, then techniques for quality and efficiency. Learning, and perfection, comes in stages. One does not simply teach a 6-year old to separate eggs - skill sets come with age and experience.
Responsibility grows with time. So does the expectation of harmonious interaction. I think a family in which every member is fulfilling their responsibilities and interacting as they should and as they understand, even if mistakes occur, would be considered "perfect."