Family

I love the word family. It connects to feelings of belonging, love, connected-ness, care, and many many other good warm feelings.

But the best part? You have more than one family.

I have my family that I was born into. My mom's family and my dad's family. All together they make one great big support center of love, respect, advice, and concern. We do things like pray for each other, laugh, cry, learn, spend time at family reunions, birthday parties, christmas, and adventures in life lessons. We are there for the more personal situations. The deep, life altering decisions of careers, spouses, and choosing which path to take in life. They give me wisdom, they teach me things about life that I haven't yet been able to realize and discover for myself. They give me warnings. And most important of all, they are just there. There to listen, there to talk, there to love, there to live alongside of me.

Then I have my family of friends. We also laugh, learn, cry, and go through things together. This family of friends I can relate to on a different level, however. They are my age, they're going through the exact same things as I am, at the same times. My parents and grandparents have great, sound advice in hindsight view. However, my family of friends will help me see things in a different light than my parents. Why? Because they are part of my generation of thought. There is nothing wrong with my parent's thought, but there is the fact that they can't relate to my generation as well as I can.

Then there is the greatest family of them all. I'm part of a family of the dead and the living. At first, that sounded gruesome to me, just thinking about it. But let me explain. Since time began there was God, and God has a family. There are members of that family that lived thousands of years ago. There are members of that same family living today. Christ's family, God's family, will one day be united together in heaven, a new heaven, better than the one now. What's better than heaven? Just wait. I find it just awesome that I'm going to be able to talk to Joseph, to Moses, to Adam, to the prophets, to the original disciples. I find it amazing that I'll be able to sit at the same table as my Savior, and worship God in person, face to face. What an amazing opportunity to be part of a global family.

So there's family. Pure, honest family. No matter what kind of family situation you are in, there is always a family that you can belong to. You just have to find it. And really, it's not that hard.

As a closing thought: When I go home to my parent's and brother's house, I sleep better than anywhere else. Why? I feel safe, comfortable, and at HOME.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28