Family

Family – Discipline

Elder Planning

Additional challenges occur with age: infirmity, Alzheimer ’s Disease, dementia, dependent parents, and the difficulties of administering assistance to the elderly. The highest value is for us to honor our parents in every way possible. Just as our parents struggled with raising us, we must return the blessing they were in providing our care.  I know that the honor is not always deserved, but we must do so in obedience to God.

• Deuteronomy 5:16 says, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
• Proverbs 16:31 reminds us that, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.”
• Proverbs 20:20 – If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.
• I Timothy 5:1 – Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father, and to treat older women as mothers.
• I Timothy 5:8 – If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Prevention and coping with crises

There is a way to positively deal with the crisis you find your family in. We have writing on topics for a number of crises:

• Addictions
• Alcoholism
• Attention Deficit Disorders
• Depression
• Eating Disorders
• Sexual Addiction
• Sleep Disorder
• Suicide
• Aids/HIV
• Grief
• Sexual Abuse (Male and Female)
• Post Abortion Syndrome
• Divorce Recovery
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

If your family is dealing with any of these crises, pick up our book in the store, but also call a counselor and a coach so that you can get the help that you need.

Balanced Living

So often when we get ourselves in trouble, it is because we are out of balance in our lives. We find ourselves too focused on our work, our desire for entertainment, or our family that causes other aspects of our lives to crumble. Most often it is because God is not central to our lives. When He is, He orders our steps. When He isn’t there are a few huge common signs: Anger, Financial Crises, Stress, and more. Coupled with more complications, perhaps ADD or becoming an empty-nester, families can go through trying times. Look into our books for more.

Marriage Disciplines

Ephesians 5:25-28 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

We need to learn ways to strengthen our marriages by learning disciplines that our parents have (hopefully) modeled for us. If they did not, Scripture, classes, and books can also help us learn ways to build a strong marriage. The marriage can also be encouraged through the knowledge we can gain through from mentors who have successfully been married a long time. The marriage process begins with choosing a mate and identifying compatibility through premarital counseling. Struggles in marriage occur when the nest is empty, when parents lose a child and when hardships occur.

Parenting Disciplines

• Proverbs 17:61 – “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.”
• Deuteronomy 5:16 – “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Parenting can be a challenge (as we all well know!), and the Word of God has principles to apply on everything from preparing for your child, his/her first year, and all the way through them becoming young adults. We even find wisdom, in the book Parenting Teens Through Crisis, about single parenting, dealing with drugs, gangs, rebellion, and more.