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Building a healthy family as a team
Helping your children grow spiritually is a vital—and rewarding—aspect of Christian parenting. However, challenges may arise as your kids spend time in the homes of friends, neighbors or family members whose standards and convictions differ from your own.
Your first step is to be clear about the priorities that define you as a family. Provide your children with careful and easily understandable explanations of the reasoning behind the rules you live by. Equip them to graciously, yet confidently stand up for the principles they've learned at home. If conflicts arise, humbly tell the friends or relatives concerned that while you respect their feelings, it is your responsibility as parents to raise your kids in the way you feel is right.
Naturally, you should try to stay sensitive to the motivations behind these friends' and family members' behavior. If they're apparently contradicting you out of spite or lack of concern, don't hesitate to be firm. But if they really love your children, enlist them as members of your "team" by explaining that you're trying to raise your kids according to certain standards, and that you need their cooperation and assistance to succeed. They'll probably jump at the chance to help you out.
Visit FocusOnTheFamily.com for more advice on spiritual growth for your kids.
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