Family thoughts

Scriptures are clear on a few things. Family? Not so much.

The first time family is mentioned in scripture is in connection with Noah. Clearly there had been familial issues previously with Cain's problem Abel. But in the New Living Translation, the word is first used with Noah and his folks getting on the Ark.

God told Noah to get into the boat with his whole family. FAMILY. Kin. Siblings and children. Family. After the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to multiply. Things were swell. Shem, Ham and Japeth were the sons. Noah was one happy dude. Then he got drunk, naked, and the boys covered him up. For reasons only families will ever understand or know, Noah woke up, got mad at Ham for telling his brothers about the whole naked and drunk thing and cursed him.

And therein lies family.

Families are the best entity on the planet. Nothing like spouses, kids, grandkids and the like.

But let a curse come roaring down the pipe in the form of not talking to each other or not listening to each other or not being a mother to children because of some dopey thing, and all, uh, heck breaks lose. As it should at that point.

A person named Alison wrote this: "Families are a blessing and at times a burden. I believe we chose our families before birth. We all came into form on Earth with a task, and there is a Divine Order behind everything. They can be a sheltering shield when life tosses us about, a place of refuge... or they can be riddled with unresolved issues, negativity, jealousy and resentment. Whatever the situation, there is a reason why we share bloodlines and so your family will always be connected to you. The days of extended families are sadly passing, but I do believe that we all exist in the mind of God, so in a way we are all one family anyway."

All I can say is as an only child, adopted as an infant, I know so little about family I can't begin to even talk about it except to say I love my "adopted" cousins, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, but what I've learned is that life is short and anyone (even in my own family) who quits talking to another sibling is wrong at best. Oh how I would have loved to have a brother or a sister. I've never, never had someone I could talk to like I imagine I would have with a sibling.

But I've also seen brothers and sisters tear into each other like wolves debating who is the Alpha.

What to do?

Maybe Mother Theresa said it best, "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."

Nuff said.