What makes a strong family? It seems a pretty straightforward question. But, if you want to understand family strengths, you should ask when a family seems most united.
Different people would share different versions of their united family with you.
Yet, the only thing that quintessentially states the united family is the difficult times. Yes, a family has seen most united when it’s going through difficult times. And it’s also the crucial time when you can pinpoint the strengths of a family.
In difficult times they come to know what it means to be in a family.
Bad circumstances motivate family members to work more unitedly. At that time, the family members forget all their differences and support each other and face adversity.
Most families’ development happens in joyful moments, but low times bring the real meal that teaches them how to eat by sharing every piece of it.
They understand which family member needs what and how each one of them can provide it.
The second name of life is struggle. As long as there is a struggle in life, understand that you and your family will face each adversity with strength and unity.
For any family to be socially and mentally capable, one has to introduce unity, struggle and sacrifice, which will provide a strong foundation for family relations.
Due to this, the stability of your family will be established in the social environment.
It won’t only become a happy family; instead, it will become “the united family” that understands each and every member of the family. Then, you can understand the strengths of a family and what it means.
Any family that breaks up is because when a family member becomes a rebel. Or, his exterior family members’ circle make him a rebel.
Because the exterior family members start adopting a comparative attitude toward their people according to their efficiency, they do not listen to that person.
They do not understand the importance of that person’s thoughts, due to which instability arises among the family members, both internal and external family members.
Hence, the person starts walking away from his own family to make his people aware of his efficiency and ability.
Which causes the birth of rivalry tradition and the distance between the loved ones starts increasing, and the fights and quarrels between the loved ones develop, and the family gets scattered.
However, in times like this, where there are thousands of sources available in the market, it’s easy to learn the essential elements that boost the strengths of a family.
Any time, anywhere, you could learn what makes a happy or stronger or united family. It’s all the same. And below, you’re going to find out 11 ideas that could help you understand what it takes to build family strengths.
But first, let’s check out what are 5 must-haves that a family should hold to become a great family — no matter the reason.
5 Must-Haves for a Strong Family
Sacrifice | ✅ |
Compromise | ✅ |
Communication | ✅ |
Compassion | ✅ |
Forgiveness | ✅ |
To Understand Family Strengths, First Understand: What Is Family?
Family is an organization; it is the ability to fulfil responsibilities—a companion in happiness and sorrow.
Family is courage; family is strength. Family symbolizes love, compassion, sacrifice, kindness, and faith. The definition of a true family is the successful efforts of all the family members to find a solution to solve a severe problem that has arisen in the family.
The one who supports you in sorrow is family in a real sense. Because in happiness, you have many neighbours, friends, and relatives to stand with you.
But, in desperation, you shy away from taking help from your friends and neighbours. You feel uncomfortable. Then your family becomes your anchor, holds you tight and doesn’t let you slip away in heavy tides.
However, if your family does not support you in grief, you must take help from your friends, neighbours and relatives because it is sorrow that makes you recognize your loved ones in the real sense.
It is the sadness that tells you the importance of family; that shows you the real faces of your family members. Bad times only determine how much your family understands you. How much they care for you. And are there any family strengths at all?
A Case Study on Strengths of Family – My Family
When our father passed away five years ago, we accepted that adverse circumstances stood ready to welcome us.
We immediately faced economic, mental, social and family problems.
We realised then how important a father is in children’s lives. He’s a living house for his children, in which children feel safe living there.
Now we had only one way. Move forward with strength. But this life is not so easy because there are many times when different problems arise in life, and you need your family’s help a lot.
And nothing can be worse for a family when you beg like the poor for help from your own family.
And above all, what makes it even worse is when you know that those people who were given the support, sympathy and ability from your home in their worst times are not helping you.
Here, I am talking about my exterior family members – my uncles, aunts and cousins.
It wasn’t even 12 days since our father died, and my family members even asked for ₹20 ($0.27) they had spent during his funeral days.
At the same time, both of us brothers bore the entire cost of the last rites. Not only this, his family members forgot all the good deeds that our father had done for them.
Such as giving my cousins money for wheat flour and helping my uncle find a job.
Supporting my aunt’s husband in his photography business. Supporting my other aunt when her husband and mother-in-law were rude to her and not taking care of her.
And there are a hundred things in which my father helped them. But after his death, they all forgot about them, as if he was never there in their life.
A lot of effort was made to isolate us.
All the trees in our fields were cut down. Our fields were ploughed without asking us.
Our family suppressed us so much that now we thought of leaving our fields, home, and village. And go somewhere far from those selfish so-called family members.
Our family repeatedly broke our trust, false promises were made to us, and those promises were forgotten as soon as the family became a business.
In the last seven years, many such incidents made us feel humiliated in front of our own families.
Had the family considered us as their own, they would probably have stood by our side in our bad times instead of laughing at us, and making fun of us, just like our father stood by them in their bad times.
There’s not a single member in the family whom we could blindly trust. It is becoming challenging for us to trust anyone because people know the art of lying in front of your eyes.
The family members insulted our writing skills a lot. They made fun of it, which is maintaining and running our household.
But all these family, social and economic problems showed a good and true path for both of us brothers, on which we would be able to do something good.
Due to all these troubles, we started performing our duties at a very young age.
Along with our mother and sister, the responsibility of four new lives has come to both of us brothers, which we started handling well.
If our family didn’t go through bad times, perhaps we would not even know the courage hidden inside us.
And both of us brothers would have been doing our separate work.
But unfavourable circumstances brought us together. Today our dreams are our goals, and both of us brothers are fighting vigorously with the struggle that has arisen in life.
Today we know the importance of money. Today, we have come to know the real identity of people, and today we know how to become a capable person.
And making a family strong requires struggle, patience, responsibilities and determination.
11 Essential Aspects of a Strong Family Strength
1. Responsibility Makes Strong Family Members
More responsibilities mean more power or more family strength. And the power is in those who have more capacity to fulfil the responsibilities.
Therefore, to make a family firm in society, each family member must be aware of their responsibilities.
However, responsibilities should never be assessed in the family, but it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the members should choose the responsibilities according to their ability.
Be it economic responsibilities or moral or social.
The members of a strong family never consider their responsibilities as a burden but carry out their responsibilities to see the happiness of their family in it.
2. Priority – A Sign of Strong Family Strengths
Giving priority to your family is a sign of a mighty strong family.
If the family members give priority to their family more than their financial condition, in that case, the troubles in that house do not last long because priority brings restraint, courage, ability, confidence, and feeling.
For example, suppose you are going through a period of trouble in your family, and no family member solves your problem.
Your pain doesn’t seem to be their problem. They are not showing any interest in it and are not ready to solve this dire time for you.
Then, it is certain that the question will arise in your mind that you are not at all necessary to that person or those people.
Whether you are there or not, it doesn’t matter to them. You don’t have any priority in their good books.
In such a situation, the breakdown of the family is inevitable, and family strengths will lose out.
3. Communication to Build Family Strengths
To make any relationship mature, solid and reliable, it is essential to keep talking to each other.
In the modern era, elderly family members should not shy away from taking help from their younger ones under any circumstances.
And the children should also take care of their elders. As well as keep learning and taking advantage of the experiences of their elders.
To solve any problem in the family, it is necessary to have a conversation between the family members.
No matter how deep the crisis is between the family, the discussion should never stop.
4. Compliment To Deepen the Strengths of a Family
The members of the family keep encouraging each other for each other’s work.
So that the members of the family can express their gratitude towards each other, build respect for each other in their minds, and not seek their importance outside the family.
They should always realize that they have their family to support them, and the faith of the family members remains in their family forever.
5. Solidarity — United We’re a Strong Family
Any family that is strong, capable, mature and shows the greater characteristics of family strengths is because of the solidarity among family members.
And this solidarity arises out of the feeling of kindness among the members, and this compassion arises out of the members’ trust in each other.
Therefore, it’s necessary to have kindness and trust between family members to come out as one.
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6. Necessity of Problems, Stress, and Depression to Expand Family Strengths
The strength of a family can be assessed only in its worst phase. How family members behave with each other in difficult situations, mental pressure, financial instability etc., shows the characteristics of trust, belief and love in the family.
And All these characteristics further flourish the family if each member plays their part with responsibility and courage to face the worst circumstances.
7. Do Not Be Shy to Ask for Help in the Family to Test Family Strengths
Whenever you face any problem, big or small, you should share your problem with your family members. No matter what it is, it is advisable to put it first in front of your family.
So that all your burden falls on the shoulders of all the members of your family, and your mental pressure can be reduced to some extent.
It is now up to the family members how much they are interested in your problem, how much they trust you, and how your problem is solved.
In this way, trust and closeness remain in the family, and the family becomes capable.
8. Loyalty Is an Essential Aspect of the Strengths of a Family
If you want to see your family capable and strong, then you have to remain loyal to your family and keep showing your loyalty to the rest of the family members from time to time.
So that the trust between the family can be strengthened.
True loyalty does not let lies, deceit, dishonesty, false pretence, conspiracy, wrong morals, and hatred towards each other arise in the family, and you’d be able to boost your family’s strength without much effort.
9. Love Improves Family Strengths & Relations
In a prosperous family, love means respect, loyalty, compassion, kindness, shame etc.
It is equally important to have respect for the elders in the family as much as to have affection, kindness, and compassion towards the younger ones in the family.
For the strength of the family, it is necessary to have an emotional connection between them. And nothing is greater than love to evoke emotional connections between family members.
10. Leadership Guides Family Into a Better Time
The sign of a strong family is the head of that family.
If all the members of the family become the head, then the members will create arguments among themselves, which will create an atmosphere of unrest in the family.
In any problem, the family will not be able to reach any concrete conclusion.
Therefore, the family members should choose such a virtuous person as the head of their household.
Under whose umbrella the family can flourish, and above all, each family member, under the leadership of that head, can find themselves mentally, financially and socially safe.
11. Forgiveness Takes Care of Everything
Whether you’re the leader or follower in your family, it’s always best to forgive family members. Yes, it’s hard to forgive someone who makes a mistake, but it’s easy to hate someone of your own.
By not forgiving your family member, what you’re doing is running blades over and over again on your body part, which is bad for the whole body because you’ll soon bleed out.
Nevertheless, by forgiving someone, you’re applying medicine to treat your body and understand it better.
When you forgive someone, keep in mind that you’re not doing it out of pressure; it’s your sole decision. Moreover, the person you’re forgiving is also not asking sorry to use you. Take advantage of you, and once he’s done with you, he’ll stab you in the back again.
Yes, this sounds crazy when you talk about forgiveness, but as money and fame rule the world, a family member could become your enemy, and in most cases, it’s happening.
Therefore, when it comes to forgiving someone from your family, consider all factors. Why someone is apologizing to you?
What’s he/she done before? How many times you’ve forgiven them? What good it would bring to that person? Is forgiving them make your relationship better, or is it all about money and reaching some end?
Keep your heart and mind both open. Don’t make decisions mind over heart or heart over mind.
Yes, there’s no concern of the heart when making a decision, but it’s appropriate to say when it’s about emotion and becoming a better person.
I hope the above ideas to build great family strengths will help you better understand your family and its members. And you will be able to act wisely whenever it’s about you and your family. If there’s anything in your mind that you think would help this article’s reader, then please share it with us in the comments.
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That’s it; thank you for giving your time.
Nathawat Brothers
Putting thoughts for everyone.