coffee break | good family stressors

coffee break | good family stressors March 8, 2021

Even though they’re good changes, they can become stressors.  They are usually in the top 10 family stressors.

Good afternoon!  I’m just taking a quick coffee break down by the fire while my computer updates.  I want to take a quick moment to talk about a conversation I had with a colleague this week in the counseling area.  Part of that conversation had to do with good family stressors.


good family stressors

Sometimes when people get into situations like we’ve seen this last year with Covid-19, we see that there are major changes that are made.  Most of the time the changes are for the good.  They stem from questions like:

Where do you want to live for the rest of your life?

Who do you want to be around?

Who do you want to live with?

These are questions that are revisited.  Oftentimes even though they’re good changes, they can become stressors.  They are usually in the top 10 family stressors.  So bear that in mind as you’re making changes during this time.

Let’s break it down further . . .

This week in one of my readings, I revisited Luke 17.  This Passage is important because it contains one of Christ’s brief homilies on the End Times, i.e. Last Days.

In verse 27, Jesus points to one of the signs of the times, a sign of the Last Days.  They will be eating and drinking.  People will be marrying and be given in marriage.  Jesus adds in verse 28 that they’ll be buying and selling, planting and building.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Although these activities are not intrinsically evil, Jesus is not referring only to the activity.  1) There is a rapidity to the activity.  In other words, people have become busy living their face-paced lives.  2) Because of their busyness eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building . . . they fail to recognize the signs of the times.

Jesus states that some of them are unaware that the Day of the Lord is upon us!

Tying it in . . .

There are times when family stressors are inevitable, possibly due to a crisis.

Then there are times when they are the result of almost existential choices that a family makes.  We’re witnesses of that on a mass scale with families during the virus, as stated above.  They may never contract the virus, but the event has spurred them to take action nonetheless.

Once the effects of family stressors are being felt, there’s almost nothing the system can do other than work through it.  However, let’s remember our Lord’s words today.

Some family stressors are self-inflicted because of our fast paced lives.

Some family stressors may be caused because we’re trying to hold on to something when the Lord is clearly moving us on (Luke 17.31-32).  At times our familial way of life can become the greatest impediment to what’s next.  Christian family can be and is blessed by God, arguably a component of the Kingdom of God . . . but it is never the totality of the missio Dei.

We do not want to be so focused on our family, or on our current family stressors, that we lose sight of the signs of our times, what the Lord is doing around us right now.


Rev. Jared Ingle
Minister | Supervised Therapist
Teacher | Author
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