Spouses can't seem to say anything good about each other. Parents criticize and belittle children. Strong families have learned how to keep each others buckets filled with appreciation and affection. As a pebble dropped in a pond causes ripples all around, so pebbles of appreciation cause ripples that carry into other facets of life. Strong families have learned that appreciation helps family members grow and flourish as self-esteem is boosted.
Appreciation helps to keep the atmosphere pleasant and positive.
We all prefer to spend time with people who make us feel good about ourselves. Too often we spend our time looking for the faults in people. Diamond miners spend their lives sifting through thousands of tons of rock and dirt looking for a few tiny diamonds. Some of us tend to do just the opposite. We sift through the diamonds searching for dirt.