Family Crucibles — by E. Jeffrey Hill — Finding peace in trying times
Highlights from an excellent article by Jeffrey Hill, helping us find peace in trying times:
- I ask my university students to memorize three sayings that will help them find family peace:
- Life is hard but you can do hard things (life deals us all hard situations, but the fight is worth it).
- Make the best of it (don’t dwell on what has gone wrong; dwell on what has gone right).
- Things take time (life is a journey, not a single event).
- Crucibles are furnace-tolerant vessels that purge away impurities and create quality final-products, such as steel and alloys.
- In this article, crucibles are high-temperature challenges and problems that facilitate family growth and unity.
- Through heat and pressure, families can become more humble and sincere, more charitable, more motivated, and resistant to breakage.
- Family crises tend to bring out the best and the worst in families. They can rip families apart or cause families to reorganize themselves in more positive ways.
- An average family can expect to go through 3 or more extreme family crucibles.
- Ten principles to help families as they go through challenging times:
- Be prepared — practice principles of preparedness (emotional, social, physical, spiritual)
- Involve family members, as appropriate — keep everyone informed, communicate one-on-one
- Seek outside resources and support — use trusted sources as mentors
- Develop a long-term, growth-oriented perspective — see trials as opportunities to grow, celebrate small victories
- Take positive action, do what you can — don’t succumb to feelings of helplessness, do something: concentrate on what you can do, not on what you can’t do
- Find comfort in everyday family life — keep doing the things that have fortified your family in the past; don’t give up on good things
- Seek out soul-soothing environments — music, poetry, literature, outdoor activities
- Take care of yourself and your family — good meals, exercise, sufficient sleep
- Trust in a higher power — strengthen your religious traditions, look to God
- Endure to the end — be more charitable, more giving, more compassionate, jettison bitterness and strife
- “Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.” – Barbara J. Johnson
- Things take time; things happen; good things take work.
Click here to return to the Uplifting Stories Menu page
Click here to return to the Scriptural Jokes Menu page
Click here to return to the Main Menu page