Blended - Navigating The Blended Family Experience

If someone were to look at your efforts, what would that tell them about where you've placed your faith? We can say that we're believing for breakthrough in relationships or specific outcomes for our family, but our actions can express something entirely different. We need to move from a subconscious belief system to one that is intentional and stretigic about how we'll see our hopes come to pass. Alignment between our expectations and our actions is the key!

The best outcomes for our families requires us to be present and invested! However, if we're faking 'nice' or pretending to be interested because it's simply what we're supposed to be doing, then we'll miss the mark over and over again. Surviving the difficulties until we arrive at the promised land is an enticing option as we navigate family, but this posture is much more likely to produce the harms that we're trying to avoid. Faith, however, gives us both a confidence and an assurance of the things we long to see within ourselves and our family. Blended families must shift from surviving storms to locating the center of the chaos and taking hold of the peace that allows us to endure!

Realizing that you're a people pleaser is a tough revelation! What may have started as a healthy desire to provide support and satisfaction for others, can become an inability to hold back our precious time, attention and resources. When the gift of kindness has become corrupt, we can become the type of people that consider ourselves valuable based on what someone else has to say. Freedom is on the other side of those that break the cycle of pleasing others to our detriment and that of our families.

The connection with your spouse is what keeps the relationship alive and fruitful! Our ability to endure the give and take that comes with family also depends on our efforts to remain on the same page. During this episode Margo and I discuss how we practice the life saving tool of checking in with one another. We also got to do some celebrating because what comes natural now, seemed impossible not too long ago! If you want to hear how an imperfect couple has stumbled through this process of maintaining the right kind of intimacy, then you'll want to take a listen!

It has probably never been so difficult for two people to get on the same page! The confusion around relationships and how they should be done seems to be growing by the day. This is no way to build a foundation for the future. In order to avoid the moment where we're trying to define our relationship, we have to put forth a counter-cultural effort of intention and living with clear direction.