Want to try an experiment and see if it helps you have more patience? See your family as “patients” and you as a doctor. You need to diagnose accurately: so how do you listen to them? Can you hear underneath to what’s really going on or merely symptoms? Do you need to write a prescription? If your prescription is off, could it cause unwanted and harmful side effects? Even more illness? Definitely. So rushing and just trying to get things over with using impatience may do more harm than good. Who knows, seeing them as your patients may just provide you with the patience you wish you had more of.

We all do way too much criticizing (speaking to the men here). What if we took a different approach? The “I’m looking in a mirror approach”? When a husband sees something he doesn’t like in his wife, a good question to ask himself is, “where is this also happening with me?” Whenever we see a speck in our wife’s eye, it’s good to check our own for a log. I bet this one change would alter marriages on a level that could only be considered miraculous. Men, have you tried this for a week and seen any change? Women, what do you think would happen in you if your husband tried this for a week? (The same is true for our children)

Jesus grew up as a Carpenter. Later, He was mistaken for a Gardener. Which is He? Both. He both builds and grows things with us, in and through us. One key to healthy family is to recognize when He’s which. Is He wanting to build something in us right now? Or grow something? So often, we try to build things when He’s growing something else and grow things when He’s building. This is true not only in us as families, but also individually.

How we handle the sin of others influences our own susceptibility to it. Gentleness is protection. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1

Is one of them more important? Watch this IG live to find out…and learn one skill you can implement today that will help you break down defensiveness in your marriage (or with your kids).