Harmony is a priceless ingredient in relationships of every kind. Nowhere is it more precious than in family life, where intimacy sometimes tends to develop an exaggerated awareness of others' dispositional frailties.
In musical parlance, harmony is a pleasing combination of sounds differing in pitch and quality. Similarly, the family group usually includes differing tastes, varying levels of response, and diversified abilities. But the collective blending of individual patience, loyalty, tenderness, and Christly affection can bring a degree of harmony strong enough to hold animosity, rebellion, willfulness, or injustice in check and to overcome them.
The maintenance of family concord is not the responsibility of any one member, but should be shared by all. Properly considered, the family is a balanced unit, or whole, in which parents and children shoulder the mutual obligation of love in thoughtful consideration of one another's welfare. A New Testament epistle summarizes this dual responsibility: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Eph. 6:1-4.
