Strong Families

During class on Tuesday I spent a lot of time criticizing my family. I went out of class thinking wow my family isn't that strong at all. However, after reading a few posts I realized that I didn't have to focus on what my family needed to improve. I could instead think of it as- What makes my family a strong family. After shifting my perspective I discovered that the time my family spends together is what makes us strong. Whenever we all get together back at my parents house we tend to stay in the same room the entire time we are there-even if its all weekend. We sort of plant ourselves in the kitchen and live there for two days eating, talking, playing cards,or watching t.v. My point is that even though we may not show affection or aprreciation frequently, we may not have positive communication and speak with sarcasm or put downs often, we may not cope with stress in the best way, and we may not all have the spiritual wellbeing- we still enjoy spending time together. This is what makes my family strong. In a professional sense all of us at some time may be confronted by a fellow co-worker, a patient, a student, or in a more personal sense a friend who will seek our help in coping with their own family problems. I think that thinking back to what makes one's family strong can be beneficial in almost every case. All families have room for improvement, but just thinking about the one thing or the many things that keep our families strong can give us solid ground as a starting place to work on the others. As in my case, even reminding people to try to see what is good about their family can be uplifting all on its own.