Silver Lining (Nov 2-16)

We’re Teaching This:

Have you ever heard someone say: Every cloud has a silver lining? It means with every storm, with every cloud, there is a something good about it. That’s a nice little saying, but sometimes silver linings are hard to find in real life, aren’t they? It’s hard to see the good qualities when it comes to people at school who aren’t so nice to you or teachers who make your day miserable. Maybe the hardest place to see a silver lining is your family. In the best situations, family members can be annoying, but for many of us it goes beyond that to real brokenness and painful memories. Very few families in history have experienced more brokenness than Joseph’s did in the Bible. After his father played favorites and his brothers sold him into slavery, it must have been hard to believe any good would come out of his situation. But through Joseph’s story, we see that God can use us to change our relationship with even the most difficult family members. And if we’re willing to look for it, we may just find the silver lining in our family.

Think About This:

No one needs to tell you that we live in a fast-paced culture. You would be the first one to say that life is complicated, family is challenging and busyness, pressure and tension are probably at a high in your life. We may all have different circumstances creating the exhaustion that we find dictating our lives, but the end result is the same. We are tired. We are worn out. We are on our last nerve and operating off depleted reserves when it comes the people who need us the most: our family.

And the reality is, we aren’t the only ones stretched a little thin. Our students are too. Their tempers are even shorter than ours. They’re as quick to snap as we are.  So what do we do to relieve the tension and begin to bring sanity back to our families?

We get serious about having fun.

There is actually a science to it. When we laugh, enjoy ourselves, and learn to let go we can actually reduce the amount of stress in our lives. It feels counterintuitive. It feels counterproductive. But it’s true. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our family is to be as committed to fun as we are to our schedules. We need to get creative and intentional about ways we, as an entire family, can learn to have more fun and in the process actually begin to enjoy one another more.

• Try a change of scenery. Just leave the house together. Try heading to a local park for a picnic dinner or moving homework time to a coffee shop. Sometimes just going some place different can lighten the mood

• Try something new. Attempting something together that is a new experience for everyone can not only be fun but also strengthen our relationships. If you’re not sure where to start, check discount websites like www.groupon.com for inexpensive classes you can take as a family.

• Try something tried and true. Sometimes just the retelling of an old family story that always gets a laugh is enough to draw out the silver lining in our family. Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself for the sake of your family. Nothing harms a family dynamic like everyone taking themselves too seriously. So pull out a photo album or drive by your old elementary school and have a good laugh.

The point is, in order to find the silver lining with our family, we have to make fun a priority. Just laugh.  Be goofy together. And in doing that you may find your teenagers aren’t as bad you thought they were—and they might end up thinking the same thing about you.

Try This

Sometimes the quickest way to see the best in someone is have fun with them. So try planning a “family fun night”.  Now hold on. Don’t check out yet. Maybe you worry your teenagers think this would be a terrible idea—that anything their family plans would be lame. But we did some of the work for you and asked real students what they would actually enjoy doing with their family. (See? They don’t really despise you all of the time, even though it may feel like it.)

So take a look at the list below and find one that works for your family—or use these ideas as a springboard to come up with your own.

I love going out to eat with my family and going shopping at weird little thrift stores in town. – Kat, 15.

I like going to the movies with them. – Sam, 16

  

Movie night at home is always fun. – Olivia, 17

Bowling night! – Maddie, 15

Family lake day! – Sean, 17s

I love vacations because it gets us away from other people so we can hang out together. –Sadie, 14

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