How to Respond to Family Feuds

CCEF has posted on their website an edited version of Tim Lane’s booklet, Family Feuds: How to Respond.
Here’s a summary:

Christmas is coming and that means family get-togethers. But these celebrations are not always a picture postcard of family bliss. For some, these gatherings are dreaded and avoided when possible. Why is that? Why is it so hard to get along with the people you grew up with? Is there any hope that old, hurtful patterns can be changed? In this booklet, Tim Lane writes about these challenges and how through your relationship with Christ you can learn how to love your family and reach out to them in concrete and practical ways.

You can read the whole thing here.
Lane begins by rehearsing a number of truths:

1. Every family is flawed
2. Flawed families need God’s grace
3. Your family of origin does not determine your identity
4. God’s call to love includes your family
5. Changed by the cross of Christ

He then gives some practical strategies for change:

1. Respond with grace to your family
2. Take responsibility for your sins, not your family’s
3. Become an instrument of grace
4. Make wise choices for your children
5. Persevere in love