“Real families are built upon tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.” [UB 142:7.11]

Thought Adjuster: “The above quote is well worth pondering—one of the main reasons being that it also pertains to the spiritual lifestyle embraced by the Divine Household to which you are meant to belong.

“How can you contribute to the wellbeing of such a vastly diversified family of destination?  Your initial training occurs within your family of origin—the one consisting of your blood relatives.  Tolerance, patience, and forgiveness are the spiritual attributes in high demand for successful family dynamics, as they are the prerequisites for all sound interactions.

“Developmental thresholds have been identified along the human growth curve, starting with “the terrible twos’—the age when the toddler gets more in touch with his selfhood and stages his first revolts against the parental authority by throwing state-of-the-art temper tantrums.  Such outbursts, even though trying the parental patience, are commonly accepted as part of the course and the elders’ forgiveness is a ‘given’.  Actually, there would be ground for concern, were the child not demonstrating a certain degree of self-assertion.

“After adjusting to this new development, there ensues a period of relative smooth cruising—until the child reaches the age of puberty with its associated turmoil due to the release of new hormonal substances in his electro-chemical body, prompting the necessity for the family unit to make renewed mental and emotional adjustments toward the greater independence of adulthood. 

“Having to deal with a rebellious teenager steps up another big notch the parental training toward the mastery of tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.  Turning the page leading to the second chapter of the child’s life may be initially felt as a loss.  Yet, it is a necessary step to prep the teenager to leave the family nest.

“In hindsight, both the parents and the child may reminisce with some degree of nostalgia these turns of events that acted as the catalysts for much inner growth—on both sides of the family equation.

“Your earthly life will be deemed as a success if you acquired more patience—that is increased self-mastery.  As well, the ability to forgive and to make allowances for others’ immature behaviors and shortcomings is a skill that is in high demand in higher realms, as there cannot be true love without genuine forgiveness.

“Dear ones, from this higher perspective, you can look at such testing family matters with lenses of gratitude.  Children need a safe environment to test their boundaries.  As well, parents get the precious on-hand experience which is necessary for their own character development.  In spite of very real dangers that such family crises turn into ‘lose-lose situations’, the odds are favorably tipping the scale toward an all-around ‘win-win episodes’.”