Unusual Families...

I have been told multiple times in my life that my family is "unusual."  This is such a loaded statement and there are probably a million reasons why we could be described as "unusual."  Maybe it's because we like to go to yard sales while we are on vacation or split cupcakes and donuts 10 ways so that everyone can try each flavor.  Maybe it's because we rent metal detectors at midnight in hopes of finding wedding rings or trek down the street in the snow...in our PJ's...on Christmas Eve in hopes we will see Santa.  Maybe it's because we roll down the windows in my Mom's GMC Safari (which by the way is the ugliest mini van on the market) and blast David Crowder at deafening volumes in some of the classiest places or because we like to make random sounds while walking in public places...all at the same time.  Or, maybe people just think we are weird and they use the term "unusual" to be kind.

Yesterday, as we were making the 10 hour trek home from Maine to Maryland, returning from an amazing Christmas and New Year's Break with our families, I found myself thinking, our family is unusual.

We aren't perfect.  We aren't always kind.  We aren't the richest.  We aren't the most prestigious.  We make mistakes...daily.  We say things we wish we wouldn't have...all the time.  We yell.  We fight.  We get frustrated.  We don't always agree.  We are each flawed in our own ways.  Yet we are unusual.

We have a deep love for each other.

We have a deep love for Jesus.

They are the difference makers.  They are what keep us together at Christmas.  They are what cause us to pack into a 15 passenger van with 3 car seats, a pot of sauerkraut soup, and a pot of mushroom soup and drive two hours each way to New Jersey for a Christmas Even Czech Dinner just to turn around a few hours later and come home.  They are what push us to walk into random stores on Christmas Eve Eve and pass out candy and cookies to strangers who are working just to spread some hope.  They are why we stay up until midnight eating food at the Waffle House that inevitably will give us heartburn that night.  They are why we drive 1200 miles to spend a few days together.  They are why many of us break down Christmas morning as we share around the table what God has done in our life over the  past year and why we are grateful for that.  They are the glue to our family and probably what make us unusual in a world where the words "family" and "dysfunction" go hand in hand.

I don't believe a deep love for each other and for Jesus is something that just happens.  I believe that it is something that is intentionally sought after.  My parents are by no means perfect (just sit as fly on the wall when my Dad puts up the Christmas Tree or when my mom gets in an accident with a rental car and you will soon see why).  But they were intentional.  From early on, they made sure that we knew they loved Jesus with everything inside of them and they loved us without condition.  They made decisions based on their love for Jesus for our family...sometimes really hard ones that the rest of the world had no interest in.  They created traditions, memories, and special moments to let us know just how loved we were...daily.  They modeled what it meant to love Jesus even when life didn't make sense and modeled what it meant to love each other even when we didn't deserve it.

We got to spend New Year's Eve with my sister Kristen and her husband John for the first time in a long time.  They probably could have spent it with friends who are way cooler than Nate and I...that wouldn't take much...but they chose to hang with us.  That night, my sister made us a 5 course meal in her home, we played games, we laughed together, we gave our kids baths, and we stayed up late like we were back in college again.  I watched as my sister made that night special for us.  I watched as she loved on her kids despite some really challenging moments involving a little plastic tea cart that Grammy had given for Christmas (long story on that one).  What I saw that night was a little of bit of my parents in my sister.  Her kindness, her ability to create special moments, her unconditional love for her kids, and her love for Jesus radiated out of her.  Her and her husband have a deep love for family and an even deeper love for Jesus.

Maybe we are unusual.  Maybe our family is weird.  But maybe...just maybe...if we stick this thing out...our kids will be imperfect and unusual too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Donut Story

Image
When I was about five years into being a Youth Pastor, I met a group of kids that changed my life.  Many of you reading this, who know me personally, have probably heard me talk about them numerous times.  Nate and I happened to live in the parsonage next door to the church I was serving at at the time, and would routinely come home to a group of boys that I would have described then as "rough around the edges."   They dressed mostly in black, had long hair, and sometimes even had black painted fingernails.  They loved to smoke, and they loved to skateboard.  After a few days of watching them through our window, Nate and I went outside and brought them some sodas.  We introduced ourselves, told them I was the Youth Pastor at the church, and invited them to come to youth group.  While they politely declined our invitation, we continued to invite them over and over again, attempted to skate with them, and fill them with snacks.  Until one day, ...
Read more

A Mother's Heart...

Image
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again.  There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and...
Read more

Stories Matter

Image
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking!  I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said someth...
Read more