What thanksgiving is about part 2:Family

Hey everyone, This week I’m talking about family partly because thanksgiving is about spending time with family blood related, adopted and friends that have become family. I know from experience that family life can be pretty complicated and crazy at times for me I have biological family, adopted family and friends that have become family adopted family because my dad was adopted and didn’t find his biological family until I was 15 so while I wasn’t adopted, I can see how adopted family really can be family and the people that are part of my dad’s adopted family I consider family. It doesn’t matter if your related to the people that you call family or not what matters is how you feel about them. Take Ruth for example she chose not to go back to her people and decided to stay with her Mother in-law  Naomi even after her husband died Ruth 1:16-18 says;”¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” ¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” Ruth chose to stay with her mother in law and later on she married to Boaz. Ruth 4:13-15 says;”¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” My point is that yeah Ruth lost her husband and she could of easily gone back to her hometown but she didn’t because her mother in-law became family. Family isn’t about who’s related to you and how their related to you it’s about who was there for you when you needed them most because life can be stressful. Now I know there are a lot of people in this world myself included that this time of year can be stressful because of loved ones that have passed away my grandmother on my dad’s adopted side past away when I was 14 and there’s not one day that passes that I don’t miss her. To those of you who have lost loved ones I just want to encourage you that while your loved one may not physically be with you, they are with you in spirit. Ecclesiastes 1:18 says;” For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” I know life can be stressful but just like this verse says the more knowledge the more grief basically the more you go through the more you grow. You just need to have a Ruth kind of courage. God will be with you no matter what life throws at you!  Psalm 133:1 says;” How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” As Christians we’re supposed to live in unity and some good ways to do that is when conflict does arise 1. Take a  step back and give the person some space and that’ll give both of you time to calm down. 2. Talk to the person calmly and don’t yell try to work things out with that person. Now, there will be people that you won’t be able to work things out with and when that does happen just move on. I’m going to finish this blog post by challenging you to start  building closer relationships with those around you. As always if you have any prayer requests, comments or questions feel free to comment below or message me! Thanks for reading! :)