Hi, it’s time for another Saturday diet and interestingly today’s topic is ‘The balanced diet’!

What is a balanced diet?  A balanced diet is a meal that includes all the right nutrients to keep the body healthy and they include – protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, water, fat and oil.

Today’s balanced diet is different because we are going to look at our marriage/family and the importance of a special balanced diet that it requires/needs.

Every institution has particular components they need to thrive in or grow; it’s the same in the marriage/family institution. Without these components or nutrients, there will be a crack in the relationship which will lead to separation and sometimes divorce.

What are these components?

• Rules: Rules guide and create boundaries that keep the marriage/family safe from harm. This rules are usually discussed and agreed upon together and the children are carried along as they grow older.
• Your Voice: Every home should always feel like home. To achieve the feeling of home, we must acknowledge the voice and feelings of one another.

In our home we have a saying “ONE VOICE, ONE TEAM, ONE NATION! We might not agree in all things but we have permission to express our opinions with the assurance that it will be received in love. When we shut the voice of our spouse or children down, we shut the door to their heart and love towards us.

• Laughter: A family that laughs together, lives together! As a family we have learnt to laugh together, laugh at each other’s mistake and also create memories of laughter. A smile or a laugh is like a balm to the soul. When last did you laugh together?
• Forgive: Forgiveness in marriage/family is unquestionable. Several times hubby and I have sometimes hurt each other knowingly and unknowingly, we have learnt to forgive and discuss it through. As our children are growing up we are learning that they have the capacity to hurt our feelings and vice versa. Forgiveness is a pre-requisite for a long looking relationship.
• Build: Help one another in building their dreams. Dreams/purpose are integral parts of  every human being. Each time we intentionally find ways to support and build one another’s dream(s) we forge a union/relationship that cannot be easily broken.

Will share a story (but names have been edited) Peter and Prisca have been married for 10 years and seem not to see eye to eye. They have come to a place where Peter moved into the hotel rather than live in the same house with Prisca.

They came for counselling and it was looking like divorce was the only way out, till they tried a project together – building a boys-quarter together. After several months we visited and saw a couple that had something in common and were willing to learn to love again.

Will you make out time this season and begin to establish “The balanced diet” that will keep your home safe from destruction?

 

Love,

Ngee & Rich       

Founders of Keeping Marriage Alive Initiative

“Will two people walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” Amos 3:3 (CEB).