A Letter to My Daughters on Getting Along

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! Psalm 133:1

Are my daughters fighting? Having trouble getting along? At odds over anything at all? No, but they have in the past and probably will be again. I wanted to take this moment to make sure they know how I feel about their relationships with one another.

The verse above was one of the first verses that I taught Rachel when she was a little girl. I wanted to be very purposeful in making sure my girls didn't fight, argue, bicker or, in general, be just plain mean to each other. They had to learn from the beginning that even though they weren't always happy with each other, they still had to love each other. They haven't always been perfect angels to each other and I don't expect them to be, but I do expect them to apply Scripture to their relationships with one another and others. But this letter is specific to them about their bonds with each other.

What does it look like for brothers, in this case, sisters to dwell together in unity?

• At three, it means giving your sister the bigger half of the cookie.
• At five, it means letting your sister have the prettiest hair bow.
• At seven, it means reading each word carefully so that your sister can pretend she can read too.
• At thirteen, it means doing your sister's part of the chores, again, when she has too much going on.
• At fifteen, it means teaching your sister how to curl her hair.
• At eighteen, it means teaching your sister to shave because your mom is too busy at the moment.
• It means laughing your head off at the dumbest inside jokes that no one else will ever possibly understand.  (By the way, who is Fred?)
• It means loving your sister's choice of a husband, even when you don't like him (at first).
• As an adult, it means weeping with your sister as she suffers her biggest losses - whether it's a job, a boyfriend, a house, a baby, a husband.....
• It means rejoicing with your sister at her greatest joys, even when you don't want to.
• It means praying for her often, encouraging and admonishing her in a way that you would want.

When you are all grown up, I won't always be around. I can't even be a part of every thing now. You must apply what you know about Scripture to your relationships. You all will face challenges so much greater than you can think of now. In the adult world, problems like not getting to start in a basketball game seem minute. Your biggest heartache will not be having to go to church with less than perfect hair. There will be really hard things that you will face. As you follow Christ and love your own individual families, remember, how good and pleasant it is for sisters to dwell together in unity.

It means NOT laughing when your sister falls off of the top of the pyramid :)