I read somewhere that China’s leaders are finding out that their “one child” policy is producing a whole generation of spoiled and self-centered only children. I guess I’d have to agree that siblings sure can keep you humble.
At our family’s last holiday gathering, the pictures and movie clips that brought most shrieks of laughter and mockery were those that portrayed family members in an embarrassing way. I hope my relatives were laughing with me and not at me.
It’s not such a bad thing to be taken down a few pegs. Satan is always trying to get us to self-inflate with the flatus of ego. It is a good thing to make oneself small and others big. St. Paul wrote, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).
Home is a great place to practice complimenting, comforting, and cleaning up after other people. Home is a great place to practice treating other people as more important than you, of extending yourself and expending yourself to make somebody else’s life better. If you can’t love your parents, siblings, and kids unconditionally, you probably won’t be able to do it for anyone.
Why put yourself through this? Out of reverence for Christ, of course.
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