My Family Essay

Ever heard the saying, â€Å"blood is thicker than water†? If yes, you know it means no bond is tighter than your family. In our families we love, serve, teach, and learn from each other. We share our joys and our sorrows. Family ties may bring us difficult challenges, but they also give us strength and some of our greatest happiness. Through my own personal perspective, if you don’t have family, you don’t have anything. Thinking to yourself, you have it all, each time you see them cross your path. Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family. Families are so important because we are born into them, marry into them, and even create them among the people we love. They come large and extended or small and eventually grow out into a huge bunch. But whatever their size or wherever they live, strong families give us the nurturance and strength we need in order to survive. I cannot express how blessed to have been born into the family I have. Of course no Brady bunch is perfect but one thing is for sure, everything WE do, we try to do it right. Throughout our lives, most of us find ourselves living in two types of families, our family of orientation and our family of procreation. I bet your face expression is awkwardly confused, but let me break it down real simple for you. Our family of orientation is the family in which we were born into. We had no choice as to who our parents would be, and most definitely had no clue what genes we would inherit. We had no say in our early intellectual stimulation, or in how our emotional or survival needs would be met. I guess you can say, it is all a matter of destiny and who god imself wanted to place you with in regards to the life he has planned for you. Our family of orientation, however, is the institution that hopefully gave us the sense of stability and protection that we all need. We had to rely on our family of orientation to provide the nutrition, shelter, and assistance in learning how to walk, talk, and eat. When at our best, the family teaches the finest things human beings can learn from one another such as, generosity and love. But, it is all too often where we learn nasty things such as hate, rage and shame. My family falls deeply into the good traits, my parents are soft and gentle, but can also be cold as ice when it comes to messing with their kids and family members. One thing in my family that you simply do not do, is mess with myself or my younger siblings. I inherited both of their traits equally, I can be as sweet as a fine sliced piece of cake, or as cold as walking out on below 0? floor, barefoot. Moving on to your family of procreation, once you enter into adulthood, you then find yourself in your family of procreation. The difference between the two is important. The choices which led up to this family of procreation are only yours. When you marry, you have to choose the one you marry. Factors included with that individual’s looks, personality, abilities, knowledge and interests. Sometimes you even get what I call, a â€Å"combo deal†. Pretty self explanatory, your partner may bring along his relatives and sometimes even children. Into what you ask? Into your marriage, that’s what. Of course we always hope and pray, that individual did not bring with him baggage from his family of orientation or previous relationships, but rather positive experiences from one of the other or both. O ne important subject I’d love to get a little more in depth with is the true values of a happy family are. As I previously stated, my family is nowhere near perfect but we try to do whatever it takes to keep our heads held high. Although being Mexican-American can pretty much sum up to why we are stuck together like glue at all times. Our culture is really big on staying together, and doing whatever it takes to get to the top as a whole. Growing up my parents taught me a couple of unique values to always carry at hand. They mean a lot to me and as a whole, they are the foundation I grew up from into who I am today. In our home family values are rules or ideals that, as a family, we agree to live by and stay true to. Having strong well defined family values helps set the foundation for a strong, tight knit family. When educated long enough this closeness provides a soft place to fall when life doesn’t go according to plan. Strong and consistent family values are important in building trust and confidence in each family member. I just want to explain a couple that are important to me and my household, although I’m sure you will obviously relate. We are a very close family, one thing about us, we all want to feel wanted. Come on, who doesn’t want to feel like they belong? It is important that each member of my family feel that they are loved, that they belong and that they matter. Being a united family could mean that you spend every spare minute together doing family activities but keep in mind that everyone is different. Creating a strong family is great, but each person should be allowed the space and freedom to explore the activities they think they may enjoy. People are braver and more willing to take chances if they know they have a safe place to come back to when things don’t quite work out.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Family is not an important thing. It’s everything. † I’m all for order, schedules and structure in my family to help maintain some level of reason. But too much structure and the unwillingness to give a little can result in a lot of unhappiness and dislike. The more flexibility you have in decision making, for example, the happier your family will be for it. I know I personally love having a say in everything, sometimes even having the last word is all it takes for me to be happy. Imagine one member of the family always thinking they are right and enforcing their way of doing things. Flexibility in the family will certainly ease of a little less unhappiness off and bring out the happiness within. * 2 of my favorite and most important family values are respect and honesty. I swear I cannot stress enough how crazy important these factors are to my parents and although these two are a bit more difficult to define because they hit a ittle more into the heart than others. For my family, to respect each other is to take feelings, thoughts, needs, and preferences in to account when making decisions. It also means acknowledging and valuing everyone’s thoughts, feelings and contributions to the family as a whole. Respect is indeed earned and there is a very fine line between it and fear. The only way to earn and keep someone’s respect is to first show them respect yourself. That is the most important rule in our household. Respect is an important family value will extend out of the home and into school, work or other social settings. Honesty is something I learned the hard way, so many problems entered my life thanks to lack of honesty. This is the foundation of any relationships that are meant to last. Mother-daughter, husband-wife, sister-brother. You name it. Without honesty a deeper connection will not form and certainly won’t last. Encourage honesty by practicing understanding and respect when someone tells you of their wrong doings. If we lose it and get angry when we’re told what has happened the other person will be more likely to hide it from you next time simply to avoid the disrespect. * My parents always taught me to be humble no matter what. Giving without thinking â€Å"what’s in it for me† is an important value for anyone wanting to be a responsible, contributing member to society. Through generosity we build empathy since we tend to think more about what people want or need. Being generous doesn’t mean simply handing over money to someone in need. It can also include giving your time, love, attention or even some of your possessions. Being generous is the same as being humble with other people around you. Respect your elders, always forgive, take responsibility, and give! To gain respect, you must first earn it, in order to earn it, give it! Values are essential to living a happy and meaningful life. It is family members who come to your rescue in the need of hour and stand by you when you feel lonely. They give you mental as well as financial support. You can share your problems if you have any with your family members. So it is family which is more important than anything. So take care of your family, they are all you truly have. A close bond with your family now is a bond that will get stronger as you go. I would never trade my family for anything or anyone in the world. Where ever I go, I’ll make sure they tag along with me.