How to Strengthen Sibling Relationships

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An apologist, Christian political advocate and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. Think about your children. This past week, one of my kids did something very special for the other. And I thought, wow, it's great to see children, siblings that love each other. And of course, mine are older and looking at, how can I keep them connected in adult life? And that's what we're going to talk about today.

So welcome to Christian Perspective. We're going to talk about how to strengthen sibling relationships today. But first, I want to thank Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary for being the host of the Christian Perspective studios. If you're looking for a place to go to college or maybe continue into a master's or doctorate program, please visit mabts.edu. That's mabts.edu. And before I jump in here with Connie for our Family Friday gathering, I also want to encourage you to go to citizensfromamericafoundation.com.

That's citizensfromamericafoundation.com. You can follow what we're doing across the country. You can sign up to get updates about what we're doing to impact the culture for Jesus. But specifically, I want you to think about giving an extra special Christmas gift to your family and join us as we go to Israel on December 26th to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. It's over the Christmas break.

The kids will be back before they have to go back to school. It is going to be a great time. And I want to tell you, you know, there's nothing like visiting Israel.

It opens your eyes to the New Testament and the Old Testament in a way that you never imagined before. So I hope you will join us. You can learn more about the trip at citizensfromamericafoundation.com. Well, Connie, it's Family Friday. I look forward to this day every week when I get to talk to you and I take notes and, you know, and it seems like we come up with a new book topic for you every week. And Connie, if you don't write some of these books soon, like you've got any time to write anymore, I'm going to have to just take our notes and put together a book. I guess I can ghost write for you, although I don't have the great skills that you have in communicating. But Connie, I'm going to, if you could share, I know you recently did a show and folks, by the way, I appreciate you listening to Christian Perspective, but I want to encourage you to listen to Connie's podcast.

She releases a new one every Wednesday, and you can go to Connie Albers, that's C-O-N-N-I-E-A-L-B-E-R-S, conniealbers.com, to learn more about her books, her podcast, where she's going to be speaking and traveling, and you will be glad that you did. But Connie, I know you recently did a show about sibling relationships, and as I said in the opening, you know, my kids are now in college and school and I'm trying to figure out creative ways to keep them close as they get older, but I was hoping that maybe you could share some of your secrets with us today on how to strengthen sibling relationships. Chris, thank you so much. I don't know why the sibling relationships are so important because it's, you know, there's, we talked about marriage last week and we talked about so many different elements, but the sibling relationships with such a foundational dynamic, and siblings don't get to choose like who gets to be their brother or sister. They don't get to choose the birth order. They don't, they don't really get to choose anything except they gotta, they gotta like live with these other humans and all their idiosyncrasies and personality quirks, and they have to do it in a way that is harmonious to the whole family. Otherwise, you know, we fall into chaos and there's nothing but fighting and screaming and arguing, and I just, when my kids were little, I, Chris, I just thought, there's got to be a better way. There's this, I realized that in the biblical, there's lots of biblical examples of siblings killing each other and fighting and not getting along, but I kept coming back to, what is God's design for the family? And just like with the Christian perspective, Chris, is that our families are a reflection of the kingdom, that our families are a peak and a window, just like our marriages into the Lord, because we can be a light that brightly shines. So, talking about sibling relationships just reminds me, you know, I didn't know what we were going to talk about. Okay, so for all you listeners, sometimes Chris and I, we don't have like this long drawn out plan.

It's just what God puts on our heart, and last night we were at my daughter's house who was running, who's going on another trip and she wanted to hang out with us, right? So my daughter's in her 30s and she specifically wanted to hang out with us before she heads off on this next trip, and we were talking last night, Chris, and she said, Mom, you just, you don't understand this, and I'd be precursor to this, Chris, and the book Parenting Beyond the Rules were kind of open with the story of why I wrote that book, and it was because of her, and so last night she was sitting there, she goes, Mom, you don't understand. She goes, I'm out there with my peers, other people, all the time, and our family, I mean, we all like each other. You don't even know how many times I'm getting with my brother or my sister, or the girl sisters will all get together, or the bros as they call them, the bros will all get together, and she said, Mom, that is such a rare thing, and it just struck a chord with me the need that I believe there is for helping parents understand our siblings don't need to have fractured relationships, but we do need to give them the tools that are necessary to build that kind of relationship and identity that makes them want to be together when they're not forced to.

I'm taking those here. That is so powerful with what you're saying, and you know, you've been blessed in that your family is very close, but there are a lot of families listening, Connie, who aren't, and really need to try to figure out a way to bring their families together as adult children or as children, too. Let's take a quick break, because then I'm going to be very transparent about a situation that I have, and then see if you can help guide us as parents, Connie, and things that we can do differently. Folks, we're talking about how to strengthen sibling relationships. It's so important with our children that our families stay close through the years. In other countries, families are really close, and for some reason, I don't know why Americans don't have that time. They want to go on a mission trip for us, create survivals and crusades around the world.

A lot of third world countries, poor families, everything, and it's just not always the case in there. So stick around, we'll be right back.