Love Your Brother
With 9 kids we have many different personalities. Different interests. Lots of moods…..
Despite all of that, our children have very loving, caring relationships. We have almost no arguing or fussing and there is never physical fighting. Our children really enjoy each other. This brings such delight to my mother’s heart!
That led me to decide to write a series about building godly sibling relationships. I want you to have that same joy! I’ll be sharing each week what is happening in our home and how we manage problems. We will open up and answer questions as we go along. It’s gonna be great!
So let’s not waste any time getting started……
The first thing we always do when we are figuring out how to manage anything is look to God’s Word. It has a LOT to say about how we should treat one another. We should be kind, merciful, put others first….I could go on and on. So this is what we teach our children. And we make sure they know where these ideas come from. Knowing God said it holds a lot more weight than if it’s just Mom’s crazy idea.
You may have noticed that the Bible never says, “Be kind, unless you’re three and haven’t had a nap.” Nope. We must treat each other well and set ourselves aside no matter how old we are and no matter how we feel. Of course, a three year old hasn’t learned how to be selfless and that’s why you need to teach her. Be patient, be understanding, but do not be lenient about proper behavior. Kids can’t be perfect…..no one can. I am still trying to figure this out and I am 48 years old! Perfection in NOT the goal. Learning and growing to be more Christlike is the goal. And glorifying God instead of ourselves is the BIG goal.
Begin to teach God’s principles for how we are to treat one another. It’s a good place to start. Write out a few verses and start memorizing them together. We will work build on this through the series.
1 John 3:16-18 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
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Thank you! As a mother of 8 children, I greatly appreciate your words!
Looking forward to this series! Thanks!!
Thank you for starting this series! My unsaved mom and grandma keep going on and on about how my sister and I fought all the time and how my mom and aunt fought all the time. I’m determined my children will have a better, loving, Christ-based relationship!
I’m looking forward to this series so much. As a mom of 4, this is a issue in my house. It breaks my heart when my children are fighting, especially my 13 and 11 yr old girls. I have read some of your parenting tips and they have helped. Looking forward to this series. Yay! !!
So looking forward to this series. I have a sign above my mantel that says, “Do the kindest things in the kindest ways.” I think the command, “Be ye kind” is way too often overlooked. Can’t wait to glean from your wisdom!
I’m very excited about this series! Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Really looking forward to this series. I’m sure there are going to be things in here I can use in my first/second grade classroom. And I’m sure there are things that I’ll be needing to apply to myself too!
Found you on a friends Pinterest wall. I like what I have seen so far. Looking forward to receiving encouragement. I am an only child in my father’s second marriage and my mother’s only marriage. There is 11 years between myself and my father’s last child from his first marrigae of three kids. So I really never experienced sibling rivalry. I however have two of my own a tween and a teen. Godly wisdom of making sure they have a good Godly relationship with each other is key.
This is wonderful. Thank you.
I am so excited about this series, Lisa! Thank you so much! I’ll be sharing it with my readers via social media! You have such practical wisdom to share and always centered upon God’s Word! May He continue to bless your faithfulness richly! Love you, sweet sister!
I came here from Kelly @ The Nourishing Home’s share. I’m looking to reading this series!
We waste so much time fighting and bickering. As the mom, it’s really exhausting breaking up all those fights. Growing up, fighting with my 10 brothers and sisters was the norm. I’d love a chance to teach my 7 children a different way to live with each other! Thanks for this. I really hope it’ll help us.