Love — the foundation for a happy family

ONE of my all-time favourite songs is Love Will Keep Us Alive by The Eagles.

“When we’re hungry, love will keep us alive” goes a line from the song.

How true! It has certainly kept my wife, Rose and I alive during our early, financially tough married life and raising our children all on our own.

I still recall the days when we skipped lunch just to ensure that we had enough cash to buy our son’s premium milk powder. It was a small price to pay to nurture our seed of love.

I’m sure that there are many parents who will make much bigger sacrifices to provide for their children.

This is what a strong foundation of love can do. This is why we’ve always ensured that love comes first in our house.

Love is the foundation for a happy family. An analogy that I always use to highlight the importance of love is this: What love can do for a family is akin to what saving money does to a person who wants to be financially free.

It builds a solid foundation that you can rely on. A solid foundation will give you a sure footing when you’re going in for the attack, for example, investing to make a million dollars or raising well-behaved, successful kids.

CONQUERING THE WORLD

Even if you lose everything else, with enough money in your savings account, you can rebuild your life in a matter of months. The same goes when you have an abundance of love in a family.

Through the trials and tribulations of life, you’ll be able to stick together and rebuild your home using your love account.

It creates a magical bond that will glue everyone together come what may. As a smart parent, it’s wiser to build a solid foundation before embarking on the challenging journey of raising your children. Without the solid foundation of love, you can forget about creating a harmonious family, let alone brighter kids.

Growing up in a house full of love is the best gift you can give your children. When you welcome them to this hostile world, you’re responsible for ensuring that they have a positive outlook on life by creating a loving and caring environment.

It’s like building a fort to ward off enemy attack. This fort has to be strong and be able to withstand all the external elements that will constantly try to find their way in.

Once you’re safely inside the fort, only then can you plan to expand your circle of influence and achieve greatness.

Putting this perspective in the context of a loving home, your home becomes the family fort; the place where all the family members feel safe and accepted inside.

Once this fort has been solidly built, the family can proceed to face any challenges on their way to conquering the world.