You're Not Alone

Anais Nin once said, ~I know why families were created with their imperfections. They humanize you. They are made to make you forget yourself occasionally, so that the beautiful balance of life is not destroyed.~ As said before many Yodaisms ago, we've all felt like at some point in our lives that each of us have been adopted as we stood around our own family members wondering who these dysfunctional people are in my life. Thinking about it, being part of a family means taking the insanely weird, strange, and certainly frustratingly bad times along with the good. You see, no family is perfect and even though the situations may be different than others it's the struggle, pain, and not to mention the unwanted drama that remain the same. For it's the ups and downs of life in which you and your family experience to the point where it has either brought all of you closer together or end up completely torn apart. Hey, its how you correctly deal with your blood that essentially determines the strength, as well as resiliency within yourself.

Without a doubt, there is always going to be the proverbial power struggle between parent and child, which has been happening since the dawn of time. For those of you who are parents, it's a tough situation indeed to continually impart safe wisdom to your offspring in order to help them mentally, emotionally, physically, and most definitely spiritually grow even when they've reached adulthood. The teachings/lessons never stop. True, there is substantial resistance on their part causing a considerable amount of rebellion but sooner or later they'll get it. I have to tip my hat to all you parents out there who have enormous amounts of time and patience all the while knowing your efforts as a parent will significantly pay off immensely to where years down the road they will greatly appreciate everything you've done/sacrificed for them.

If you think about it, a family does humanize you, so much so that there will oftentimes be a quintessential role reversal in behavior/attitude where the parent(s) act like kids and the kids themselves take more of a parental role. I think it would be safe to say every person knows someone who is that someone who had to grow up fast for the sake of their family whereby the weight of more responsibility is placed on their/your own shoulders. He/she/you stepped up into the parent role because your mom and/or dad is acting more like a selfish teenager fulfilling their own personal needs than to their family. This also applies in a professional capacity as well...but I digress. Let me tell you something, it can take an emotional and mental toll on you or any person for that matter leading to a breakdown in which tears are possibly shed; but through times of sadness comes strength.

Philippians 2:1-3 says ~If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory;but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself~ Let me ask you this question to you, despite the dysfunctional drama within your crew of embarrassingly insane mental patients do you still love them nonetheless? Oftentimes, the love we have for God should be the same for the individuals in our family. It's hard, I know at times. Yet, it's a sad state of affairs when one experiences disappointment after disappointment from a certain family member inevitably putting strain on the relationship. However, you don't give up on them and continue to pray To Him they'll make the right decisions because that's what family does for each other right?

In retrospect, we all got to deal with the cards dealt to us when it comes to the family we grew with. As the saying goes, friends come and go but family is forever. Granted, you may cringe at that particular saying after thinking about a particular family member but at the same time you can't help but laugh or smile for that matter. Why? As much as you want to secretly swap/trade in your mom/dad/brother/sister you know they make your life that much interesting. Of course, they'll test your patience and everything else in between but that's what a family does as we drive each other to the brink of insanity. Personally speaking, I love my abnormally crazy family and wouldn't want to be part of anyone else's. In the end, I say to those who think they have no idea what one is going through in regards to family, you're not alone, because someone out there is wondering/thinking/saying the exact same thing.