Family Life: Balancing Happiness and Sacrifice : หน้า 33/216

Part One: Family Life must think more about the overall happiness of each family member rather than our own individual happiness. Part of this sacrifice, and one of the most important factors that we need to be aware of, is how to budget finances for our family: what the family needs versus what our family wants. If we do not do this, then our family will disintegrate. In the end there will be feelings that someone was taken advantage of and that someone was selfish. For example, in a two person family with a limited budget, choosing between a bottle of perfume and a bottle of alcohol may cause conflict. A marriage is a life of budgets. Whenever we see luxurious items as necessities, our household budget will immediately suffer. This is exactly what selfishness is and how sacrifice needs to be implemented into our own family life. All that we need in order to sufficiently survive is found in the four requisites (necessities) of life: 1. Clothing 2. Food 3. Shelter; Housing 4. Medicine; Health Care Anything outside of this can be considered a luxury. Through sacrifice, we develop the habit of living only on that which is necessary. We should let go of the things that we feel we "just need to have!" When we are thinking about marrying someone, we should ask ourselves two questions: 1. Can we depend on this person when we are sick or in a life-threatening situation? Family Day By Day 31 Four Keys to Avoiding Marriage Problems