love one another

Oh, the holidays.  A time to be together with family, eat a lot of food our thighs don’t particularly love, and generally be thankful for all that we have.

The older I get, the more I find myself shaping and reshaping family relationships. Don’t read too much into that: I adore my family, but when you don’t see certain extended family sometimes it’s hard to have that close relationship with them. So you build it up,  you shape it into something wonderful and then it wanes and it slips – you blame it on distance or the fact that they don’t have Facebook and then start again.

But what about those family members that aren’t blood? What about that moment when God places someone in your life and a new family is born?

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another:
‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’”
C. S. Lewis

I have an aunt that says the best kind of family are the people you choose as your family.

And to that I say this: family doesn’t have to be the group of people you are born into. Family can be the people that know you and love you unconditionally.

Family is a feeling.
It’s a commonality – of love and respect.
Families are groups of people that choose to love each other and lift each other up for always.

“A new commandment I give you:
Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
John 13:34 (NIV)

So as we gather, household upon household, know this: family is what you make of it, who God places in your life.

And during your day of thanks look around: every person you share your day, your time, your life with – know that they are your family.

“Not what we say about our blessings,
but how we use them,
is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
W.T. Purkiser

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