Family Dysfunctions 1 of 5

We recently had a family campout at the church. Other than cooking on the fire, surviving the cold, we went throughout the night doing activities that gave families an opportunity to work together as a team. It was interesting to watch the dynamics of each of the families unfold as we went through the activities. After the activities we introduced 5 Dysfunctions of a family...(based on the book 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni). The information was so awesome for the families there that I wanted to share it on this blog to hopefully be a blessing to those families in need that missed the campout. This blog will be one of five.

The first dysfunction of a family is Absence of Trust. You know your family has an absence of trust when members of the family are not open with one another about their feelings and concerns. In order to build trust within the family, everyone must be open and understanding about each others feelings. This can only be achieved through talking things out and debating things with each other when decisions are made. A great way to do this is having family meetings when there are times of conflict. But why do we not talk things out within the family. There are two reasons. For one, we are usually so pressed for time to have a healthy conversation. Parents are juggling jobs and trying to get home just in time to provide dinner. Meanwhile kids have to get homework done and make it on time to soccer practice. Time is hard to find sometimes but we must take time to talk things out as a family if we want to build trust. The second reason why we don't talk things out as a family is because of fear. Most of the time, members within the family, especially kids, are fearful about being open with their feelings because they're afraid of getting in trouble. And as adults, we're afraid of having such conversations because we don't want to have conflict because after all, we already established we don't have time.

So what does God's Word have to say about this first family dysfunction? In Proverbs 3:5 it says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."

As a family, we must "trust each other with all ourselves" being open with our feelings without fear and "not lean on our own understanding" because we don't know it all. And our decision is sometimes not always best. Acknowledge God and acknowledge our family members and then and only then will the best path be revealed.