Be your family's biggest fan!



Say nice things behind their back, and it will be easy to love on them in person!

Say nice things about them in front of them, and it will be easier to be apart from them!

I have not always done these things successfully, but have implemented this tact for many years. Enough to know it works.





My father used to say when I was growing up, "Give people flowers while they are living." He is a minister and has done so many funerals and heard over and over again how the living wished they had done and said nicer things to the deceased.

Look at pictures of happy times, and it will make you happy all over again and in a better disposition to talk to your family!

Forgive the bad times, quickly!



If you have put your family member in any kind of box, let them out quickly! When you don't, you are burying them prematurely!

First do no harm to others, but don't martyr yourself either. Smile when it hurts, and the salve of love with protect both you and your loved ones.

 



Only find humor in others that they find in themselves, and find humor in yourself, then let others in on the joke! You can both enjoy a great laugh. Laughter bonds!

When you can't be there in person, text, email or call! When someone connects with you in this way, respond! Only the dead don't respond. The living always stay connected! If you don't respond, they will have no choice but to interpret that they are irrelevant to you.





Send encouragement notes! Say thank you to even the smallest encouragement!

Don't be a critic and kill a relationship with a thousand nicks! Instead, build your family's emotional house with a thousand bricks of kindness!



Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up on family! You are their advocate! The world sees them through your eyes, and if your eyes are clouded, it's time to spend some quality time with family! If others try to separate you from your family through jealousy or because they sense you are unhappy, get right quick, set your friends straight, and honor your parents and family always! It's worth the effort!



Always say I am sorry!

Off to love my family today...

This post is dedicated to my family, natural, married-into, spiritual and friends who've been as close as family!