Family Matters

This coming weekend, I will be on my way to Salt Springs, Florida for a family reunion.  I am looking very forward to it!  Although I am ashamed to admit it, this will be the first one that I have attended in 3 years.  I haven't been absent from the past 3 reunions because of anything me family did to me.  I have been absent from the past 3 reunions simply because of my own self-centered, bull-headiness.  Each year that I would announce I wasn't going to attend, my family, though not too surprised, was still very understanding and encouraging.  You see, I have the best family in the world, and I know they always love me.  As I write this devotion, I am almost in tears, both happy ones and sad ones.  I am sad that I have wasted 3 years with them that I will never, ever get back.  But I also have happy tears too, because, well, I feel like I am coming home.  I feel like the Prodigal son, and just like the Father in the Bible story, my family will be waiting for me with open, forgiving arms.  Trust me, I am going to absolutely enjoy every single second of this trip!

If you are having any trouble with your family, whether it is a result of your own doing or theirs, I encourage you to make every attempt to patch it up as quickly as you possibly can.  You know, when it comes right down to it, family is all we truly have.  Think about those people in the world that have no family.  They probably feel extremely isolated, like tiny islands surrounded by a big ocean.  Can you only imagine their loneliness?  But God chose to bless most of us with family.  Why would we try to separate ourselves from the very thing God gave us?  I can not tell you what a relief I feel for reuniting with my family.  Is it now possibly your turn to do the same?

Father, thank-you for our families, and I ask you to please help those who may not be seeing things eye-to-eye.  In Jesus name, Amen.