What’s the “Communication Temperature” like in your home right now?
After months of spending more quality time than usual with one another, are the words that your family is sharing cool, revitalizing words of encouragement? Or, is your communication heating up with volatile sarcasm and pointed words of accusation?
I’m always amazed (actually ashamed) by how easy it is for me to speak sweet words of encouraging refreshment with friends, neighbors, and even total strangers. At the same time, I allow myself harsh verbal freedoms with the people I claim to love the most. How is that? How do we muster up the energy to pour into others, yet allow our at-home communication to tear down or discourage?
We can offer words of encouragement, but it’s going to take a conscious effort on our part. By our very nature, we are slow to encourage others, but longing for that same type of encouragement ourselves.
We need to habitually practice words that uplift. We must learn to offer words that refresh. We owe our family words that spur one another on to love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
We have to build up rather than tear down!
All it takes is a commitment and a desire to build our family up with our words and the humility to stop waiting for them to “Go First.”
There isn’t a neutral ground when it comes to communication within our families. Either we are building up one another with our encouraging words, or we will be tearing one another down through discouraging words. Even facts, information, direction, and child-training need the tempering of Biblical words of grace and encouragement.
The more we practice encouraging others, the more natural it will become. Plus, our model of refreshing words will provide fertile soil for seeds of encouragement to sprout in the lives of our other family members.
Be careful not to allow familiarity to breed contempt!
Our families deserve our best, and as we all practice excellence in our family communication, together, we’ll become a united and uplifting force that God can supernaturally use to show Himself to the world.
Want to learn more about the power of our words? Click the link below for this week’s Thrive Tribe video. And don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and hit the NOTIFICATION bell
Megan Scheibner 