If you are not one of those whose parents ‘coerced’ into a specific field of study, you probably chose what course to pursue, which career path to follow, the city where you live, what to wear or not to wear this morning :-), you chose who to allow into your circle of friendship and if you’re married and are not a victim of an arranged marriage, you chose your spouse. In most things in life, we have a choice, except , obviously, when it comes to biological family. We never get asked what is our opinion on who we would like to have as parents or siblings and not everyone gets born into the best of families and sometimes, as soon as a child arrives into this world, parents take off , never to be seen again.
One day I was chatting with a friend who had major issues with her family, and as she explained her situation to me, she added “I wonder if things at the same in every family”. Have you ever had those moments were it feels as if your friends at school or in the neighborhood have the best parents and family in the world, the kind that hug and kiss you as they drop you off at school, or tell you stories and laugh with you, or those in whom you are confident enough to tell your little secrets. We get exposed to different people, different families and as is usually the case with many things in life, what others have always seem to be the best, and we think to ourselves that perhaps God made a mistake in giving us the family we have, or maybe, He didn’t love us as much He loved our friends.
When we hear someone saying “I don’t like my family”,we can think they’re cruel. If you reached a place of hating your family because perhaps you are/were mistreated, oppressed or even molested by family members or simply had a difficult experience with family, remember that no family is perfect. Even those you envy most have challenges of their own. There are people in this world who have no one they can call family. Your family may not be perfect and your parents didn’t do what is expected of a parent but you were born in that specific family for a reason, and no matter who your parents are, what they’ve done to you, still, give them the honor and the respect due to a parent. This is one of the greatest principles taught in the Bible for one to have a prosperous life, and it will not change because of who are parents are. Where they may have wronged you, forgive.
Don’t live your life in conflict with family members and regret your choice one day when they are no more. There’s no one closer to us than family, because they are very close to our hearts, whenever they hurt us, we hurt badly. But don’t let conflicts and tension in the family stop you from enjoying the joys of having someone to call dad, mom, brother, sister, aunt or cousin.
If you’re young, planning to have your own family, learn from your experience and do everything you need to do, to offer your kids what you never had. Be to them the parent that you wished to have in a healthy family environment you dreamt of being born in. If you’re struggling with unforgiveness towards your family or would like to know how to live in a way that will position you to be a better family man or woman, we’ve got a video we’d like you to watch.Please click on the banner below.