Open and Honest Communication in Our Families

 

Romans 8:28(NLT)tells us, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” This verse is probably on the favorite list of just about every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is extremely comforting to know that God has our backs in this way, and it assures us of His limitless power and amazing grace. All of us have been in situations where it seemed impossible for things to come together. We made big mistakes, and some of these were colossal doozies, but God can turn any situation around, and this is where our faith should always be. There is no mistake too big for Him to redeem, no problem too big for Him to solve. He can cause all things to work together for our good, but we can’t forget the two prerequisites that must be met. We must love God, and we must be called according to His purpose.

Loving God includes those wonderful emotions of joy and bliss, but this is only a small part of demonstrating our love for Him. We sometimes think that love is all about emotions, but love is all about commitment. Love is a choice to remain steadfast and loyal through our faith in God. Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, made it very plain for us in John 14:15(NLT), when he said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” Doing the things that God has commanded us to do is how we demonstrate our love for Him. Fulfilling our purpose within His Will and Plan is everything, because nothing in our lives will work the way it should when His agenda isn’t the most important priority to us. We must all come to a place where our love for God exceeds our love for any other person or thing. The joy of our hearts should be to give Him our all, and when we come to this place of surrender and submission to Christ, our relationship with God flourishes.

All of us have yearnings in our hearts, and these yearnings makes us feel incomplete and that we can’t be happy or whole unless they are fulfilled. We think we know ourselves so well, but we don’t really. On our own, we can’t figure out how to make all parts of us, spirit, soul, and body, cooperate. We can’t bring them to harmony and contentment in the way God created them to be. Because of this, many of us seek other things in life, and we try to fill the void with other people, relationships, or situations. We think they can make us fulfilled and complete, but this isn’t true. God is our Creator, and whether we realize it or not, the hunger in our hearts is for Him. It is to walk in His power, love, and purpose in a greater way.

Our passion should be to do God’s Will. This was the passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and it must be ours as well. Jesus Christ told his disciples in Matthew 16:24(NLT), “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” The cross that we must pick up as followers of Christ is not easy. It will challenge us and stretch our faith to the point of making us pliable and flexible to God’s Will. Our cross presses us to breach our comfort zones and move outside of them to do the things that God has called us to do. These are good deeds, but they are not exclusive to how you and I might define them. These are good deeds that God has purposed for our lives, and they are almost always about growing our roots deeper in Christ and expanding our call to walk in God’s love and truth. He assigns them, they are a part of our purpose in His Will, and we need to get them done. 

These good deeds for Christ will sometimes usher in God’s healing not just for us but for others as well. This is especially true within our own families. In our quests for fulfillment and satisfaction in life, many of us neglect the reality that God has strategically positioned us to make the most of where we are. We are to seek to be a blessing to those closest to us before we start looking elsewhere. Within our family units, there are social ills and curses that have been passed from generation to generation, and these have caused tremendous hurt and pain within our families. Some of our relatives are carrying wounds from emotional and mental injuries they’ve sustained from those that were supposed to love and support them but couldn’t in a healthy way. They may even be unaware of the extent to which they’ve been wounded, and they may also be oblivious to the reality that they have injured us.

God’s desire is that generational patterns or pathologies of dysfunction are eradicated so that future generations are not crippled by them. As we look at our lives, we are sometimes frustrated by the pieces of it that don’t make sense. We can’t figure things out. This is a starting place to begin to pray and ask God to open our eyes to issues that need to be addressed so they can be confronted, acknowledged, repented from, and released. Those of us who walk with God through the Lord Jesus Christ can be the ones to open the door to God’s healing.

Proverbs 18:21 tells us that the tongue can bring death, or it can bring life. We are not the healers, God is the healer, but He’s given us the privilege of using His power through the words that we speak. When it comes to communicating about emotional issues, it’s commonly believed that women are more adept at lending themselves to open and frank dialogue. Men, on the other hand, are thought to shy away from sharing their feelings and tend to steer clear of broaching subjects that may cause emotional discomfort. Becoming more like Christ encourages men to take a more active role in opening a channel for God’s healing through prayer and by talking openly and honestly.

Holding on to toxic feelings and wrong beliefs will manifest in ways that undermine our spiritual growth as well as God’s destiny for our families. He wants to change this, and we can help. The Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting. He does the work in our hearts and in the hearts of others. Our responsibility is to open the door to him, and we can do this through creating a space for open communication in our families. With God’s leadership and direction, and with much prayer, we can and should set boundaries of respect, honesty, and compassion. Our desire must be to do the Will of God, because Philippians 2:13 tells us that He works in us to will and do of HIS good pleasure. Therefore, we must be attentive children of light, and we must have faith that as He speaks through us, we will minister His love, healing, and kindness to our families. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“Open and Honest Communication in Our Families” by written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.