BUILDING STRONG FAMILIES Part 3: 6 Steps To Great Family Communication

Romans 12:1-2 MSG

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

Romans 12:2 

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Four Levels of Communication

1. Surface communication 

2. General information 

3. Deep feelings

4. Deep needs

Four Barriers to Communication

1. Withdrawal

2. Escalation

3. Belittling

4. False belief

John 8:44

The devil is a liar and the father of lies.

Matthew 12:36 

And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.

Matthew 12:36-37 MSG 

Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.

Genesis 1:3

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. 

~George Bernard Shaw

1. Praise

Proverbs 25:11 

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

2. Thanksgiving

Proverbs 18:21-22 

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.

3. Affection

Jeremiah 31:3 

I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

4. Encouragement

Ephesians 4:29 

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

5. Kindness

Proverbs 15:1 

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

6. Truth in love

Ephesians 4:15

We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ…