“Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23).
How healthy is your family’s emotional bank account?
In Reader’s Digest magazine, an article by Steven Covey talks about emotional bank accounts, a concept that can measure the quality of your relationships with people.
It is like a real bank account in that you can make a deposit or a withdrawal. A deposit would be to do something that causes your family to trust you more. A withdrawal would be to do something that causes your family to trust you less.
If your emotional bank account balance is high, your family communication is open and free. If your account balance is low, your communication as a family may be painful or even nonexistent.
Covey lists some great ideas for increasing the balance in your family’s emotional account:
—Be kind to each other.
—Apologize when you need to.
—Be loyal always, in word and deed.
—Keep the promises you make to each other.
—Forgive one another from your heart.
When your emotional bank balance is high, your family will be close and happy. Make deposits into this account as often as you can! Make it a family project and priority.
Kimberly Snider is a missionary to the Philippines.
From “Moments for Moms,” a free email subscription.
Copyright (c) 2005 Women’s Ministries of the Assemblies of God.
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