Family life can be chaotic, it can be stressful, it can be expensive and it can be wonderful. A family needs vision and leadership just like any team or group of people. One way to do this is to recognize the seasonal nature of family life.
Families go through seasons, seasons of change, seasons of development, seasons of victory and seasons of difficulty.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. (Ecclessiastes 3:1-8 – NASB)
Leaders of families can embrace these times by training and emphasizing life-lessons in seasons. As the head of household ask yourself ‘what is the most important thing for our family in the next six months?’ what struggle is nagging the family? what weakness can we work on together?
Once your most important thing is identified, the next step for the head of household (ideally a dad and mom) is to communicate this most important thing, communicate often and with regularity until the season changes.
For example, my family (with young children) is learning how to control our anger. We are learning to be slow to anger and not quick to anger. We learn about anger, we learn about patience, we learn about the effect of anger on others and we learn how to help one another to be slow to anger.
