Family Communication

"Your most important friendships should be with your own brothers and sisters and with your father and mother. Love your family. Be loyal to them. Have a genuine concern for your brothers and sisters. Help carry their load so you can say, like the lyrics of the song, 'He ain't heavy; he's my brother'."- President Ezra Taft Benson

My sisters-me, Jo, Tasha, Marci, Mishelle, Kami, Rashelle, & Tamara

How does your family communicate? Communication comes through more than mere words. We also communicate with non-verbal words-our actions, our verbal-words and our tone.  In fact, did you know that words make up only 14% of our communication, tone is 35%, and non-verbal is 51%!  When our mom's said, "Actions speak louder than words", she knew what she was talking about!

Another sister-me & Amber

Rashelle, Shane( brother) & me

For some, communication is an art-it comes easily, always make sense, and the words seem to flow so freely.  For others, communication is learned. It has hard to say what you mean, or quite often one may have the words formulated in their head, but it comes out all wrong.

Jo, Tasha, me & Jeff-brother

Yes, one more sister & brother-JB & Jess

I have many examples in my life of communication and loyalty-- my family!  I have posted many pictures in my blog today, because I wanted to share where my greatest friends and examples have been of how to communicate. They have "give (me) the benefit of the doubt, assuming the best (in me), and being patiently and kind and generous in my communication to them.  I have 7 siblings and my husband has 2 siblings, but I consider all of my brothers and sisters-in-law, as my own siblings.  You may call that crazy, but I love it! There have been many times over the years that my siblings have been very patient with me.  I have a habit of speaking before I speak.  As you can imagine, at times this has maybe hurt feelings and been very embarrassing!   My siblings though are my greatest fans and have looked on my heart and not so much of my words.  They have offered great feedback-how I know my words were really received.  I have adjusted over the years, but at times it is easy to slip up.

 In Ephsians 4:26-27 it reads, "Be ye angry; and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil." vs. 29 "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Some examples of corrupt communication are criticism, sarcasm, belittling, etc. The second part of that verse is how I would like to end this blog and it is how my professor ended class, "Anything you may say, make sure it is full of grace, it builds up, it edifies, and it is pure. My siblings- thank you for being loyal to me-I love you!