"Healthy Family"

'Healthy families' teach respect for others. I've heard racial sexual slams in casual conversations---even in church. Where does disrespect for others. I've heard racial slurs, ethnic and gender jokes, political pot shorts, and sexual slams in causal conversations---even in church. Where does disrespect for people of different skin color Or ethnic background begin? it comes from families who fail to teach and enforce respect for others. 'Healthy families' work to instill this bedrock biblical value in each member. When I was a child, someone from my neighborhood brought his mentally and physically challenged cousin to the bus stop where I was waiting for my school bus. Some of the kids started making fun of the boy,and I joined in. That night at the dinner table, I casually said, "There was this mental retard at the bus stop this morning. He was real deformed and looked weird and all that, so we goofed around and said some things". Suddenly, my father reached around and grabbed me. When I saw the intensity in his eyes, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. He said to me, "fifi, we never talk about people that way! My brother was mentally and physically disabled. Your mother has a brother with Down syndrome. We've lived with the ridicule and disrespect of insensitive people. We will never allow talk like that in this family". I've never forgotten that experience. I learned that I will never look into the eyes of someone who doesn't matter to 'God'. If 'Jesus' values every person-regardless of skin color Or background-enough to give his life for him Or her-- we should value that person, too. Are you building that respectful attitude into the family you're raising now? 'Healthy Families' instill responsibility in each other. There's a growing perception in our country that people- from crimials to politicians-no longer take responsibility for their actions. The Book of 'Virtues author~~ William Bennett recently': "The only hope for our society is to revive such virtues as self-control and prudence and honor and fidelity to commitments, And that kind of training must begin in the home where family members instill a sense of responsibility in each other. "I couldn't agree more". 'Healthy families remind each other that we can't all be takers. They reinforce basic lessons such as living within you means, paying your bills on time, Keeping commitments, and working hard until the chore is done. 'Healthy families' teach hundreds of little character lessons like these in an attempt to instill an appropriate sense of responsibility in each other. 'Healthy families' create meaningful rituals and traditions. Did you have family rituals when you were growing up? Are you building them right now? Celebrating family traditions together creates unity, security, constancy, predictability, and permanence. 'Healthy families' know when to seek help. Every family has points of tension and misunderstanding. But sadly, many families in the preceding generation dealt with their problems by sweeping them under the rug, putting on a happy face, and trying to deceive everyone around them. One of the most positive trends I see regarding the future of the family in the growing conviction that families are so important, so fragile, that when something gets out of whack for a long period, it's time to ask for help. I don't know where we'd be if we didn't have loving elders, other family members, and counselors to coach us along the way. 'Healthy families' know when they need help--and they get it. In the end, healthy families lavish unconditional love for and commitment to each other- regardless of age, gender, level of attractiveness, Or competency. While no family is perfect, we can learn to fill our children's lives with the kind of love 'God' has for us--love that convinces them, at the core of their being, that they're treasured for who they are. Ultimately, 'God' can help you grow into the kind of family he meant for you to be.