Article September 16, 1991 Issue

The gentling of families

Strained family relations aren't natural, even if at times they seem to be. The law of divine Love can help us find the freedom to love.

Holly Bolon

When I hear of discordant or severed family relationships restored through the power of prayer, I always am deeply moved. We all naturally want our family experience to be warm and loving. If it isn't, we may feel desperately deprived. But no matter how unhappy—or even destructive—a family relationship may be, we can turn to God, who is the very source of love, to find healing. We can turn to Him in humble, listening prayer.

The most effective prayer is this childlike listening attitude —not asking God to change someone else (no matter how much changing we think that person needs)! As we allow our own thought to be transformed by His love, we begin to view ourselves and our family in a new light.

How we view ourselves and others depends on whether we accept a spiritual or a material view of man and his relationship to God. Both perspectives are found in the Bible in the book of Genesis, and they differ dramatically in how they portray relationships.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Breaking the chains of inertia