Day 150: Family Matters

Proverbs 6:20

My son, keep your father’s command

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

1 John 4:20

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

Psalms 133:31

How good and pleasant it is

when God’s people live together in unity!

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

I cannot stress how important family is, and how important it should be to us. God values family and he has given us the family we have for a reason. Trust me, I know that many of our families are far from perfect. My family is very far from perfect, but no matter how much we argue or how much they get on my nerves, and sometimes I’d rather not be around some of them, I love them. We are called to love, and the first people we should experience love from is our family. We learn love from our family, and we are brought into the world of chaos and placed into the loving and protecting arms of the parents that God chose for us, that is when we experience love for the first time.

The Scripture tells us over and over to honor our father and mother. It tells us to hold on to the teachings of our mothers and fathers and not to forsake them. The scripture tells our parents to raise us right, to chastise us and teach us how to live. It tells our parents to lead us by example and raise of to basically be good God-fearing people.

I remember going through a time where I abandoned my family to latch on to my “church family”. I neglected my family because I thought I had found something better with my church family. When they all hurt me and abandoned me I turned back to the family that God gave me. I turned to the mother that raised me. I realized that God has given me the family that I have for a reason. He has given me people that will love me unconditionally and wouldn’t walk out on me even when I walked out on them. He gave me a family that will still be there even when I disrespect them. I had to apologize to my family and realize that what I had was enough. I was trying to create this idea of a perfect family and being embarrassed by who I was and who I came from. I learned to love them and realize that God gave me them on purpose.

Today is Memorial day and as many families come together to celebrate or honor a fallen soldier. I want to stress the importance of family and how we must love them beyond all faults. It is a beautiful thing when family comes together as one. God instructs us to love our neighbor, our neighbor is our blood brother and sister, our first and second cousins. We are called to love our family as ourselves as well. As Christians, we often look outside of our family and home base for people to love, but they are right in the next room. They are the families we were born into.

I know that many of us are born into situations that we cannot control and some of us do not have the best life at home. Some of us don’t have the parents to lead and guide us. However, I truly believe that even in that, God is sovereign. God loves you beyond what a parent can and beyond what your family can, and wherever there is a void He will fill it.

One thing I ask of you is, Dare to Love. Dare to love the family members that have abandoned you or hurt you. Dare to love the parent that has walked out on you. Dare to look past their faults and love them. I know I’m asking for a lot but trust me when you choose to love rather than hate you will feel so much better about this life, and the life you are living.

Let me tell you a little story:

There is one side of my family that never really treated my sister and I well. We never understood why all we know is that this is the way we have been treated our entire lives. As we got older we started to lack the ability to care, and slowly we got to a point where if they did not want to have anything to do with us we didn’t want to have anything to do with them. So that’s what we did, we treated them the way they treated us. Recently I have come to the conclusion that no matter how they treated me, I would love them. I decided to let go of everything they have done to me over the years and chose to love them. They ended up reaching out to my sister and I. We came to a conclusion that no matter what, we would love them. That doesn’t mean that we have a great relationship with them, but we are no longer holding anything against them.

What I realized is that, I cannot profess to love God and have a grudge against the people I’m supposed to love. All this to say, over the years God has taught me how important family is and how we neglect to cherish the very people God used to bring us into this world.

So today there will be no questions or prompts, just take the time to love on your family and pray for them. If you are estranged from them, take the srides to make it right. I know it takes time. If you’ve been hurt, ask God to help you with forgiveness. Just remember that God gave you the family He gave you for a reason.

I love you! Have an amazing day or evening and come back tomorrow for Day 151!