"A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living." - Charles R. Swindoll
Family, along with the experiences one obtains throughout life, are among the main factor that shape a person into who they are to be in life.
The importance of family is so important, and it is only becoming more and more crucial as the world changes and advances.
As Pastor Swindoll put it, family is a place where principles are hammered and honed, and that is how it should be. A persons family is their foundation, their anvil, their everything, on more levels than one.
If you want to put it into a social context, your family is your backbone, a collection of your best friends that should support you through thick and thin. They are among your closest confidants. A family is full of wise elders, close siblings, protective parents and more.
In a scientific context, your family makes up your DNA. They are a physical part of you just like you are a physical part of them, and just like a team, a family should support each other with this in mind. Each member should hold high their reputation and their family's honor, as mistakes and discrepancies reflect on them as much as you.
It is truly tragic to someone as fortunate as myself to witness this standard of the family not be met in so many peoples lives. Coming from the best of family's, with support surrounding me in every direction, with people I can trust and confide in, I have a fairly high standard. But with family, why shouldn't we have the highest of standards of what we should be achieving?
To me family is like baseball. When hitters are struggling, other hitters are expected to step up to the plate and produce runs. And that is what family should be like. When one member struggles, the others take up the slack and help. A good baseball team has a great defense. A good family has great support amongst its members. A great baseball team plays well together. A great family lives well together.
When I was younger, one of the main traditions and family principles that was embedded into me since before I could remember, was the classic All-American idea of the family dinner. A family should eat together. I never realized the importance of this truly simple idea, until I was much older. Eating as a family, face to face with your parents and siblings, builds true bonding; builds support and knowledge of one another. Dinner is a time to reflect on the day's events. Dinner is a time to converse with the most important people in your life. Dinner is a time to smile and engage, challenge and reward.
As a young adult, the importance of this astounds me. It starts a family out right, and ends the day well.
Like I said previously, I am truly grateful and lucky to be apart of the most amazing family I could ask for. We are flawed, yes. We have problems, yes. But we also have some of the best people on this planet, and we support each other. We make each other better.
So please. Remember to take time for your family, and never take them for granted. Some of us are not as lucky to have such wondrous people in their lives. Some people have no anvil upon which to be hammered into great people.
Cherish the hard iron of support your family provides, as a true family will cherish you.
Regards,
S.J. Hernandez
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