The day you begin to compare your abilities with others, you begin to doubt your significance and value to God. God has placed specific abilities and talents within you. Though these same gifts may lie within other people, they are still unique to you. How you express the abilities that God has given you, is as unique as YOU.

Resist the temptation to define your worth by comparing yourself to others. The Bible says, “It is dumb [stupid] to compare your self to other people.” (2 Corinthians 10:12)  God wants you to be you.

Don’t trade things that bring permanent joy for things that bring temporary happiness.

Do we simply ignore the temporary? I don’t believe so. There are all types of things we must deal with in our lives that seem to carry no real eternal significance. Yet, how we deal with those things and how we prioritize our lives can make an eternal difference. Often, how you do life is often more important than what you do in life.

Paul warned, “Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.” (1 Corinthians 7:31 MSG)

The local church is a living body, not a building; it’s a vibrant organism, not just an organization.

The Bible tells us, “Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we?” (Romans 12:4-5 MSG)

The first symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent attendance at worship services and other gatherings of believers. Whenever we become careless about fellowship, everything else begins to slide, too. Just as an organ that is severed from its body will shrivel and die, so do we if we cut ourselves off from the life flow of the community of other believers.

“Under his control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.” [Ephesians 4:16]

The following are two life giving principles that will strengthen your family relationships:

1. Create an atmosphere of grace – Your family members don’t want to feel as if you are defining their value based on their accomplishments or behavior. Love and accept them unconditionally. Offer loads of encouragement rather than constantly criticizing one another.

2. Preserve the dignity of your family members - Reminding family members of past wrong doings results in keeping a ledger of failure. When you bring up the past in order to drive home a point, you are poisoning your family’s hearts with shame. This communicates to your family members they are defined by their past. The result is despair. There is no way they can undo their mistakes.

The definition of a spiritual legacy is, “The spiritual, emotional and social heritage passed down from parent to child – whether good or bad.”

It is this overall idea of legacy that you must keep in mind in building strong family relationships. It is important to realize that legacy is not an event, it is a process. In other words, legacy is “caught” more than it is taught. Legacy is demonstrated in the way you live out your life on a daily basis before your children.

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous. [Prov. 13:22]

1. Develop a mission statement – Some families have a family crest that serves as a point of identity and recognition. In the same way, a family mission statement serves as a unifying factor that can galvanize family members around common principles and values. A family mission statement also establishes a “we” mentality instead of an “I” mentality. Continue Reading…

The following are traits that are connected with healthy family relationships:

They freely show appreciation – In studying family relationships that are strong, I have noticed they are quick to compliment each other and always demonstrate approval and support.

They have an ability to deal with crises in a positive manner - Families that are healthy are able to help each other respond to bad situations by focusing on the possibilities within each problem and challenge. Continue Reading…

When it comes to marriage advice, one of the best suggestions I can offer is to connect with your spouse on an emotional level. Gary Smalley says; “If a man truly wants to communicate with his wife, he must enter her world of emotions.” This can be a scary thought for most men.

I can remember when Bonnie and I began to implement this in our own marriage. We realized that if this was going to happen, we needed to schedule it. We began to schedule one night a week where we would turn of the T.V. and take that time to focus on our relationship. Bonnie called it our “going deep” night. First of all, I didn’t like the name at all. Continue Reading…

There are certain spiritual things that are only accomplished in our personal time with the Lord. Those same spiritual victories will never be accomplished in a corporate worship setting. In the same way, there are certain things that are accomplished in a corporate setting that will never happen in our personal time with God.

The truth is we are called not to just believe, but also to belong. We were created for community, fashioned for fellowship, formed for a family. None of us can fulfill God’s purposes by ourselves. Our relationship with Christ is personal but not private.

So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:5)

One way of strengthening your marriage involves making time for one another. Even though this point seems too obvious to mention, it is still surprising how this simple truth can get away from us.

Recently Reader’s Digest reported about 1001 couples who were surveyed regarding the elements they value the most in marriage. The statistics were interesting with the importance of laughter being 52%, compatibility 30%, quality sex 13% and frequency of sex just 9%. It is clear that if you want to experience lasting love in your marriage, you need to make time to relax, laugh and enjoy one another.