Dr. Randy’s Top Ten list for INTENTIONALLY creating a healthy relationship with your In-Laws.
- Help your family member be successful. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. (Psalm 37:3-4)
- Maintain realistic expectations. “Make me absolutely honest and don’t let me be too poor or too rich. Give me just what I need.” (Proverbs 30:8)
- Focus on areas of shared interest. “And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14)
- Express your love and appreciation. “Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God’s Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others. Now make me completely happy! Live in harmony by showing love for each other. Be united in what you think, as if you were only one person. Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves.” (Philippians 2:1-4)
- Stay back from the boundaries. “Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” (Proverbs 17:9)
- Do fun things together. “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.” (Romans 15:5)
- Keep your nose out of their business. “Early the next morning, they each took a solemn oath not to interfere with each other. Then Isaac sent them home again, and they left him in peace.” (Genesis 26:31)
- Couples: your marriage is your priority. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one.” (Genesis 2:24)
- Take responsibility for your part of the relationship. “But as the angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented and said to the death angel, ‘Stop! That is enough!’ At that moment the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, ‘I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.’” (2 Samuel 24:16-17)
- Pray for their success. “Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Corinthians 13:11)
© 2016 by Randy Carlson
