Love Dare - Day 17 - Learn How To Deal With His Family

Many women don’t realize how important this is but many marriages are at their brink because of this.

Mother-in-laws and father-in-laws shouldn’t be painted up to be such horrible people; after all if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t have a husband! The Lord knows how grateful I am to mine!

My parents-in-law are marvelous people, I love them truly. And my brother and sisters-in-law don’t even get me started…

I’ve always valued them and continue to value them. I try to please them in every way possible, despite being so far from them. I’ve never felt like an intruder because they make me feel like I’m part of the family.

We are distant and very often my husband does not call, but I do. I always email them photos and I make an effort to keep in touch, in fact, I think I speak to them more than my husband does!

In order to have a healthy relationship with your husband’s family, you need to be humble and try to understand their side of the story.

The mother, she brought up her son with the upmost care and love, it can’t be easy for her to see another woman taking her place and therefore, you should try to be more understanding.

If she notices that you are being careless with her son, of course she will get upset even if she knows that it’s not her place to say anything but at the end of the day a mom is always a mom and it’s not easy…

Many wives feel offended when their mother/sister – in -law say/s things like:

“Look, my son like his rice this way. Let me teach you.”

“My brother likes for his things to be very neat and tidy.”

“He’s so thin! Have you been cooking for him?”

“Listen, don’t do it like that- he won’t like it!”

“He won’t like those beans like that!”

I am totally aware that depending on the way in which those words are said they can hurt your feelings. But at the same time, if you understand the meaning behind those words then you will overcome it all and even come to love your in-laws because in the end they mean well and just want to help.

Place yourself in your mother-in-laws shoes: one day your child will want to run off and get married- can you not see what a difficult transition this is?

Be understanding, take it easy, become their daughter. Don’t try to mar their reputation by speaking badly about them.

Instead of competing with them, conquer them.

I feel so lucky to make part of such a marvelous family and to tell you the truth, nothing is better than that!

Dare-Task #17

“From now on you will change the way that you view and treat your in-laws. Forget about the past and all of the bad things that have happened between you: make a fresh start.

Call your mother-in-law and ask her how she’s doing. Invite her over for lunch. Buy her a gift you know she’ll like. Be humble when she tries to teach you something that your husband likes.

This goes for your mother, father, sister and brother-in-laws.

Always treat your husband with much respect- his parents will appreciate that in you.

You can start making these changes gradually and allow the process to take some time because if you do it all at once, your in-laws will begin to suspect that you want something…

Be wise, my friend, and always place yourself in their shoes.

If you have had serious problems with regards to this, don’t give up. The change you want to see will not occur from one day to the next like magic, rather it will take some time.