Grateful for Family Ties

This weekend my three children, two grandsons and a host of extended family members were in from out of town for my niece's wedding. The celebration was very blessed and I am so excited to watch my niece begin this new chapter of her life.

With family in from out of town, I have had wonderful opportunities to count my blessings. I have been blessed by my sister who came over to my apartment to catch up and spent several hours helping me organize my blog so that it will be more searchable in the future for all of you, my readers.

I have had some great conversations with my children, some wonderful cuddle and play times with my grandsons, and a chance to catch up with what is happening in the lives of siblings, nieces and nephews and other family members.

While families are never perfect (because they contain human beings), they are the place where we begin life and learn about relationships, for better or worse.

We each travel through life with a combination of family blessings and disappointments and wounds. As adults, it is our job to sort through these and keep the nuggets of gold, work through the emotions of pain or anger, and discard (and even reject) those beliefs, habits or ways of relating that are harmful.

A friend of mine has an expression that I have tried to adopt. "We all do the best we can."  I hope my children, in the face of their disappointments and wounds, will look on my efforts with a gentleness and mercy, and in their hearts believe "She tried to do the best she could."

Now it is their turn to shape the lives of others, to steer their own ships into peaceful, productive waters and to do the best they can, learning each day how to make their best even better.

Family is a funny thing. We don't get to choose our family, but we do get to choose how we respond to them and how we let them shape or continue to affect our lives. We also get to choose how we will love, honor, and add value to those in our family.

I hope you will think about your own family today and decide how you can show love, appreciation and gratitude, even in simple ways. They say "blood is thicker than water", and families are a great place to be stretched, empowered, loved and to love in return.

May you take one small step toward strengthening your family bonds today. You might even want to share in the comments below an encounter that might inspire us all.