We Are All One Family

I love when ghost hunting reality shows are filming in an ancient ruin and ask their questions in English, “What is your name?” I wish the ghost would say “Hey, man I was a Viking several hundred years ago and I have no earthly idea what you are saying to me right now!” They couldn’t do that because it wouldn’t make for a good show.

Sometimes that is how I feel families work. There are things that are glaringly obvious going on in our families and you wish someone would just up and say it. Like, “John, you treat your wife absolutely terribly in front of your kids and they are learning this from you,” or “Grandma, when you dismiss my problems like they don’t matter, it makes me feel like you don’t care about me at all.” But such statements wouldn’t make for a good show at Thanksgiving or at family reunions or wherever we are with family.

We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and sometimes we have to get real to fix deep-seeded problems in our families. God made the family before he made the church. That is why it makes no sense to say you love God yet hate your brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, or whoever makes up your family. How real are you willing to become to stop the generations of hate, selfishness, bigotry, adultery, abuse, or whatever else might be holding your family down?

Dear God and heavenly Father, thank you for giving me a family to love and cherish. Please help me to lovingly and humbly confront family members when necessary. Help me to be the peacemaker. Give me the wisdom and the strength to do what is right every single chance that I get, because I truly want to love everyone deeply, from the heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Throughout This Day: Ask the Spirit to show you if there are people you are choosing to run away from rather than love deeply. Invite him to show you how to deepen your relationships with them in his strength. Thank him for pouring out his love in your heart, and obey anything he tells you to do, whether it seems small or huge, knowing he is giving you the ability to do so as you step out in faith.