Kent and Barbara Hughes suggest the following to built family affection: 1. “The best possible foundation for building affection: love for God…We are able to love God and others through the reception of God’s love. Loving God is what makes other loves endure. This discipline, the day-to-day empowerment to live out this love for people who aren’t always “lovable,” is what fosters the ongoing growth of affection.” 2. “It is essential, then, if a family is to develop the bonds of affection, that the children have the assurance of their parents’ love for one another.” 3. “An obvious place to enhance family affection is at the dinner table. That is the single best daily opportunity families have for all gathering together…We encourage you never to surrender that choice time, for it is an unsurpassed opportunity to build family life.” 4. “Family vacations were at the heart of building the Hughes clan’s affections…we made disciplined investment in family vacations…Sometimes brief, spontaneous mini-vacations can (also) have important results in developing family unity and affection.” 5. “Mutual interests builds affection…Wise parents know this and look for a common interest or adopt their children’s interests as their own.” 6. “Families that learn to appreciate their points of uniqueness and to chuckle at their idiosyncrasies pull together in affection rather than apart in irritation.” 7. “The home is the place to be sentimental, corny, even weird for the sake of affection.” 8. “Wise parents who wish to enhance familial bonds will do their best to keep up the communication with grandparents and spent time with them if possible. Few things can be more elevating to family than loving affection extended across generations.” (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
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All Messed Up

All Messed Up

All messed up?

Everything I do is wrong! I can’t open my mouth without putting my foot in it! Why am I such a mess?

Have you ever asked that question? How many times have you said to yourself, “I may as well do nothing, rather than do everything wrong.” Well, move over. The line of people, that has at one time or another thought these thoughts, is long and somehow I seem to fit right into it.

Everyone feels this way at some time in their life, but we also have some people who feel like this all to often and others who feel this way most of the time. But is this really necessary? I could go on and write a long lecture on this subject, which along with the many other lectures that have been written about it, would end up at the bottom of some trash can, but I won’t.

What I will do, however, is share a little poem that is sure to bring us right around whenever we get the blues. It’s all about this friend I have, who loves me regardless of what I do. A friend who won’t turn His back on me, regardless of how bad I mess up. He’s a friend who’s around even at 4 o’clock in the morning and is willing to listen to every burden that I lay at His feet.

I have a Friend so precious, So very dear to me!

He loves me with such tender love, He loves so faithfully,

I could not live apart from Him, I love to feel Him nigh;

And so we dwell together, My Lord and I.

Sometimes I’m faint and weary, He knows that I am weak,

And as He bids me lean on Him, His help I gladly seek;

He leads me in the paths of light, beneath the sunny sky;

And so we walk together, My Lord and I.

So often we get into one of those moods where we start feeling sorry for the plight that we’re in, or think we’re in and along comes a ray of light to brighten up our day. This is exactly what happened to me not too long ago and I found that I can always turn to Jesus with my problems. He is your help and mine. Some people say that we use Jesus as a crutch..but(as says), “maybe He is our crutch, but that’s not a bad thing to have if you are a cripple.” I find that a cripple like me needs that crutch.

If you have problems that you think are insurmountable, call on Jesus… nothing is to difficult for Him!