Healthy Relationships

Lately, every time I check my e-mail, there is always a new article in one of the newsletters I receive about healthy relationships. It may be about political relationships, specifically between America and other countries as a result of Obama’s most recent decisions about the country’s recession. Or those between friends and the importance of building honest connections in which we can express ourselves and enjoy the breaks from our everyday lives. Most importantly, most of the newsletters I receive are about marriage and families, so there is a huge focus on building these relationships to be strong, healthy and positive.

Living in another culture is beginning to teach me a lot about healthy relationships and the types of people that I want to surround myself with and my family with. Whenever I take Juliana to a class or play date, I can see how she is slowly learning more about sharing and interacting with other children. Once again, it’s important to her growth and development for me and Jacob to model healthy relationships for her.

I started this blog with the simple intention of recording our experiences in a new country and being able to keep family and friends back home updated. I feel like it’s grown as the months have gone by in an opportunity for me to share my personal growth as well, specifically as a mom. The culture in Singapore is so supportive of families and provides various learning opportunities for children that I want to be able to share all of it. Some of the blogs that I follow are inspirational, because they are also written by moms who are here in Singapore for their husband’s job. I could never have imagined that this opportunity would be the beginning of so much personal growth. God is good!

On that note, I just wanted to share part of what I found most important in an article about building healthy relationships and how to model this for your children…

1. Do not expect anyone to be responsible for your happiness.
2. Approach every relationship as a learning experience.
3. Be truthful, no matter what. It’s especially important for children to learn that lies only create disconnection in relationships.
4. Forgiveness is essential for your own health and well-being. If reconciliation is not possible, forgiveness means that you are handing over your past to God and giving him the control to deal with those who have sinned against you.
5. Take ownership for your own mistakes and apologize for your wrongdoings.
6. Laugh! It’s always the best medicine.
7. Stay true to who you are and love yourself. Children need to see their mothers and fathers model self-confidence in order to develop their own self-esteem.

One of the greatest things about living in such a culturally diverse country is that Juliana as well as Jacob & I will be able to develop relationships with people from all different walks of life. What better way to teach her about healthy relationships?