In the news, there have been so many reports about various attacks throughout the world.

But what hasn’t been reported in the news is the attacks that have been made on families.

Families everywhere have been attacked, ripped apart by secrets, lies, bitterness, anger, and pain – my family included.

Whether you believe in sin or not, there is a selfish part of everyone seeking out for their own good and their own interests. That very selfish nature of human beings has caused families to fall apart.

This happens because they forget that family is important. Family is God-given. You can choose your friends, but you don’t choose your family, which makes them all the more special.

No matter what has happened in your family, I know that deep down, you want to see things restored.

Don’t give up on your family, even when things don’t make sense and even when they’ve hurt you. Chances are, you’ve hurt them before too. That’s because your family members are often times the people who care most about you, even if it doesn’t come across that way all the time.

One way to not give up on your family is to keep in communication with all your family members – not just the ones you get along with. Communication is really key. From my own experience, I have seen how a lack of communication can ruin any relationship because it leads to a lack of one’s vulnerability, one’s ability to understand the feelings of the other party, and one’s ability to connect with the other person. You may not think communicating with your family member(s) will help, but when you communicate with anyone, you are on the way to fostering a connection with them. It may take some time, but don’t give up!

Connecting and spending quality time with family members will help you to learn that person’s love languages (words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, physical touch) and enable you to learn to love them for who they are.

Another way to help build a stronger family is listening to your family members. What are they trying to tell you through their words, actions, and attitudes? They may be trying to tell you what they’re feeling or going through, but how would you get to understand them if you aren’t listening to them? Everyone wants the right to be heard, but have yet to make the effort to listen to others. Listening is often times harder than communicating with people, but you may learn things about them that you never knew, and they may tell you things about yourself that you might have never known.

Above all else, love your family, despite all their flaws. I know it’s really easy loving people that aren’t your family because you don’t have to live with those people. But with family, you see everything about them. You see the mistakes they’ve made and you see how they can be hurting towards you. However, if you choose to hold that against them, you are choosing to build a wall up around yourself towards them that can harden your heart. This wall will go on to cut you off from the love you have towards life and the love you can have for other people. When you choose to cut a family member off from your life and you don’t forgive them, statistics have shown you will end up wronging others in the very same way they have wronged you.

You can have the most friends, the best career, be famous – but if you don’t love, especially your family members who are closest to you, then all of your riches and success mean nothing.

Don’t take your family for granted. Be thankful for each and every single family members. Put them before yourself. In fact, the very word family comes from the word “servant,” which goes to prove that as a family, we don’t serve our own interests, but we serve the needs of our family members. When everyone in a family loves and serves each other, things will change for the better.

Don’t be discouraged when you don’t see any results yet. But I can guarantee you that by making one step of change at a time, you will see the changes – in their life and yours.

Having a stronger family will make you a stronger person and influence how you treat other relationships outside the home as well as the way you view love and the way you accept and have confidence in the person you are.

In the Bible, it says that a house divided against itself cannot stand. However, by loving each family member and taking the time to foster a relationship with them, your family will become strong enough to stand against future attacks made on it, and together, your family can change the world.