The Blessing of Family

I have a wonderful family and I wonder sometimes if I don't take them for granted. I have a large family and we don't all see eye to eye on everything, but somehow the love shines through. The last few weeks have been full of family pictures, discussions about the genealogy, and visits from family who live far away. This has caused me to pause and realize how blessed I am with the family I have. We have a lot of differences. We have introverts and extroverts. We have people who love to play games and those who don't. We have animal lovers and those who are not so in love with their pets. We have many sports fans but don't agree on who our team is. We have Kansas City Chiefs fans, St. Louis Cardinals fans, Sporting Kansas City fans, Kansas Jayhawks fans, Missouri Tigers fans, Iowa State Cyclones fans, Florida State Seminoles fans, Oregon State Beavers fans, Ohio State Buckeyes fans and on and on. There can be some pretty heated discussions on game days. Sometimes we just have to agree to disagree. J

We also disagree on bigger topics such as politics and religion. I sometimes avoid those topics because I don't want anything to come between me and a family member. I guess that's the peacemaker in me. When there is conflict within my family, it hurts. Family is a blessing and I don't want anything to drive a wedge between us. My family has been supporting me since childhood. During the tough times of my childhood, there was always one or more family members available to support me, encourage me and teach me. It's been like a tag team all my life. God always placed someone in my family near me to encourage me and keep me on the straight and narrow. I'm so thankful for each one of you! 

Now it's my turn. God blesses us so we can be a blessing to others. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." I pray that I can be a blessing to my kids, their wives, my grandkids and my extended family. This is one of the things that gives my life purpose.

You may not have a big family like mine. But family comes in lots of different forms. You can have a church family, a family of friends or an adoptive family.  One definition from the Webster dictionary for family is: “a group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation: Fellowship”. I would add that a common trait in families is love. (Or rather a common trait that should be in all families is love). “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”1 Peter 4:8  Lord knows none of us are perfect. Let's do our best to love one another and appreciate the families we have!