The Family ~ The Ways of Happiness

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. [1]

I'd like to share some quotes on these qualities of happy families from a variety of sources, some of which might surprise you. Enjoy!
 

Faith ~ Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time. (Oswald Chambers) ~ Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks of England, speaking to Roman Catholic leaders last December at the Pontifical Gregorian University, noted how secular some parts of the world have become. He stated that one culprit is “an aggressive scientific atheism tone deaf to the music of faith.” (Quoted in Quentin L. Cook, Ensign, Nov. 2012) ~ But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. (Alma 32:27)

 

Prayer ~ Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed. ( 3 Nephi 18:21) ~ Think of the power for good as you gather your family together and thank God for all of his blessings. Think of the eternal significance of daily thanking him for each member of your family and asking him to guide and bless and protect each one. Think of the strength that will come to your family as, daily, one member or another pours out his or her soul in love to God for other family members. (John H. Groberg, Ensign, May 1982) ~ Prayer doesn't change God.  It changes me. (C. S. Lewis) ~ Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. (Mohatma Gandi)

 

Repentance ~ When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear for punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement.  When the tears begin to flow fro the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart. (Horace Mann) ~ The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration. (Edwin Louis Cole) ~ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1: 18)

 Forgiveness ~ Forgiveness transforms anger and hurt into healing and peace. Forgiveness can help you overcome feelings of depression, anxiety, and rage, as well as personal and relational conflicts. It is about making the conscious decision to let go of a grudge. (Randy Kamen Gredinger, Huffington Post) ~ For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew: 14, 15) ~ He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. (Thomas Fuller) ~ Forgiveness is the final form of love. (Reinhold Niebuhr) ~ To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover the prisoner was you. (Lewis B. Smedes)

Respect ~ A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone. (Billy Graham) ~ There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. (Mother Teresa) ~ Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it's not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long. (Amy Grant) ~ Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.  Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. (Colossians 3: 20-21)

 Love ~ Two of the greatest scriptures on love are also the perfect guides for parents in how to treat each other and how to love, guide, and even discipline their children. ~  Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not, love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks not evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8) ~ No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, [or by parents!] only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned. By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile, Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou has reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy. (D & C 121: 41-43)

 

Compassion ~ Compassion is a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. (American Heritage Dictionary) ~ The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands. (H. Stainback) ~Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into peoples hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human 'brain' with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human 'heart' with compassion. This is what the real role of religion is. (The Dalai Lama) ~ How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. (George Washington Carver) ~ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. (Luke 10:33) ~ And [Jesus] said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you. (3 Nephi 17:6)

 

Work ~ In her book, The Art of Homemaking,[2] Daryl Hoole said this about working with your children every day: [C]hildren need the training which comes with having responsibility and learning to work.  Your home is the training ground for your children's lives.  I believe that children who are required to do a few basic chores every day to the best of their ability learn how to be good, thorough workers.  They learn how to apply themselves and use their time well. .  .  . [A]s a result, there's time for lots of family fun.  In fact, the best families I know all work together and then play and grow together. (p. 136)

Wholesome Recreational Activities ~ Recreation, broken into root word and prefix is re-creation.  We all need to take time to relax and re-create ourselves.  You've all heard the saying "the family that prays together stays together."  You could paraphrase and say, "the family that plays together stays together."  Helping your young family learn how to re-create themselves in wholesome and appropriate ways is as important as teaching them to work together.  This is particularly true for young children, for , according to Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, and other early childhood professionals, play is the work of the child.

[1] The Family: A Proclamation to the World, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[2] Deseret Book, 1969

Text © 2012 Gebara Education

Picture of family at church from www.123rf.com

Picture of family praying from www.lds.org

Picture of family members hugging from www.mentalhealthnews.org

Picture of child holding parent's finger from www.mycccc.org

Picture of family working in the garden from www.gardennlawn.com

Picture of family playing together from www.dreamstimes.com