The Perfect Family

Navigating family dynamics has been a struggle at various times in my life.  The older I get, the more life that I live, the more I realize that everybody’s family has issues and struggles.  When I was younger, I would get so frustrated.  Why couldn’t my family just act right?  Why couldn’t we get it together and be “normal” like everyone else’s family?  I had a fairytale idea of normal.  I guess I was seeking perfection out of others.  Even though I knew that I could not live up to the idea of a perfect daughter.

I was so fed up with my family when I was younger that I decided to strike out on my own.  I was probably ten or eleven.  I just couldn’t take it any longer.  I had watched enough cartoons and soap operas to know that there was a real life out there that was mine for the taking.  Now, I’m no fool.  I had no intentions of living on the streets as a runaway.  I grabbed the phone book and called different hotels to see what their rates were.  I was going to save until I could afford to live elsewhere….LOL.  Bless my little heart.  My plans fell through when I got the rates and realized that I didn’t have that kind of money.  So, I was stuck with my family.

If you’ve been reading along in the blogs for a while, you know that one of my goals for my thirty seventh year of life is to read through the entire Bible.  Instead of reading it straight through from cover to cover, I found a plan that lets you read the Bible in a chronological order.  I thought this might help me have a better understanding of what is going on.  So far it has.  Actually, just reading the Bible period has put so many things in perspective.  Like my thoughts on family.

Sitting down and spending time with these famous Bible icons has been interesting.  I’m not just reading straight through to get it done.  I’m tuned into the family dynamics.  I’m putting myself into their shoes.  They were included in the Bible for a reason, and I want to learn whatever they were meant to teach me.  And let me tell ya’ll, the Bible greats had serious family drama.

I’m only forty-three days into this journey, and these family stories have taken me down through there.  Cain and Abel, Jacob and Essau, Leah and Rachel, Job and his people, Joseph and his low-down brothers, Judah and Tamar.  I mean…down….through…there.  And I learned the MOST important thing.  Even though we may mess it up, God is gracious and can restore us.  In all that I’ve read, none of the families get it right all the time.  Sometimes the family members ask for forgiveness for their wrong doings.  Sometimes they don’t.  But people get to live full lives when they trust and depend on God.

That’s easier said than done many times.  So, I have to read the Bible daily.  I have to pray.  I have to maintain my focus on what God has for me and my family.  The families that I’ve read about in the Bible had some awfully messy times, but they also experienced great joy when they shifted their focus to God.  I can’t give up on my family.  They may not be perfect, but they’re perfect for me.  It just took me a while to understand that.  #wepreach