“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” – GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
LAST WEEK I BEGAN giving attention to the subject of “keeping your home clean”, a subject that should always occupy the full attention of every household because of its implication for the progress or paralysis of society. With germs of all kinds having a natural liking for any house, cleaning agents have to be applied to destroy the relentless nature of such germs.
Similarly, your homes where you interface with family members, are prone to several types of destructive “germs”, human and otherwise. If allowed to enter the home, these “germs” have the potential to create major relationship issues for some, or all those individuals within your household.
In my previous article, I recommended that each family member should cultivate wholesome thoughts towards himself/herself and express positive words toward each family member. Such actions act as excellent foundation blocks on which robust moral firewalls are built, which will create a stout resistance against the persistent subtle but relentless opposition to a clean home.
Today, I am suggesting that you need to identify some pollutants that have had a history of infecting family members in different ways, and firmly decide to place some bold “no-entry” signs at every entry point of your home. Here are a few of them. The Television Virus
On one hand, television is an excellent medium through which wholesome and uplifting programs can benefit the entire family. On the other hand, there are films that are not fit for your family’s mental consumption. They are like noxious viruses challenging those wholesome values like honesty, fidelity and respect for others. The end result is the manifestation of behaviours that may become less than morally pure.
One of the many serious problems with which societies are faced is youth violence. In the September 2013 edition of Psychology Today, clinical psychiatrist Dale Archer highlights the research conducted by several reputable universities, including Indiana University School of Medicine, which found that exposure to violence on television has had a powerful but negative impact on the human brain.
The Cancerous Root
In addition to violence, exposure to rancid family standards and sexually explicit content are all dangerous pollutants targeting the purity of your home. Preventing these contaminants from entering your home and replacing them with well-selected healthy material will make your home clean and conducive to high productivity. The cancer of disrespect, if given a foothold within your home will take pleasure in directly or indirectly polluting every family member and over time infesting other social ties outside of the home. Respect is defined by the Macmillan Dictionary as “a feeling of admiration that you have for someone because of their personal qualities, achievements, or status, and that you show by treating them in a polite and kind way”. Disrespect is the very opposite. When a husband disrespects his wife or a wife disrespects her husband, each is weakening the important moral cells responsible for preventing the erosion of that relationship.
If disrespectful behaviour flowing from the parents is not quickly and radically removed, then it can be easily spread to the children, who may not find it difficult to disrespect the parents and persons at any level of authority. In order to prevent the cancer of disrespect from infiltrating your home, each family member should personally digest high daily doses of respect and inspire all other family members to do the same by words and actions. If disrespect is already present, then work together as a team to identify the source of entry, and seek help where necessary to rid your home of this dangerous and deadly tumour.
It cannot be denied that the advent of the cellphone has brought with it many benefits, especially for the business individual. However, many family members wonder if these wireless devices have not become a means by which families become contaminated. This contamination becomes apparent at many dinner tables when family members are gathered for that special time together, but instead of communicating with each other, each member is having their own private conversation with their electronic “buddies”. When communication breaks down within the home, it creates open doors for the cellphone vermin to breed and contaminate the social network of the family. A stable social family network is so vital for a clean and dynamic home structure. The deterioration of communication kindles the potential for husbands and wives to fall prey to the disease of emotional and physical infidelity, divorce and other painful sicknesses.
As far as the children are concerned, rules for the use of the cellphones must be agreed to by each of them. Those under a certain age should not have cellphones nor should the older children believe that they have the right to demand expensive wireless handsets because other children own them. One way of keeping your home and by extension society clean is to eliminate the dangerous unwelcomed pollutants that enter as a result of improper, excessive and negative use of the cellphones.
Haynesley Griffith is a marriage and family life consultant. Email: griffitharticles@gmail.com
