Family.

Okay, so what is family exactly and should it be one of the most important things in your life?? I heard a quote once that said something like the family you come from isn't as important as the family you'll have.

For me, I completely agree with this. Over the last week or so especially, I have been recognising the need for a new family, for the family that will one day be called mine, instead of my parents.

I am home for the Christmas holidays and life is tuff at home with my parents and siblings. I love them to bits and I love spending time with them, but the time has come when I truly need to spread my wings and fly away. I have lived away from home for nearly two years now and there are times when I am truly homesick but now I realise it is not home that I long for, it is the companionship I receive from being with those that have known me from the beginning. It is the love that always lasts even when I'm in my foulest and most emotional moods. It is the familiarity of being with those that I know I can completely be myself with.

I miss people but not home itself. I miss my parents and my sisters and my brother but I don't miss my parents family. I realise, I kinda miss what I haven't yet lived...I miss, or rather, I long for, MY family...mine and Pauls family!!

Family can't come until you know yourself though, know who you are and what you are called to be. I think it's important and even crucial to have a time where you are by yourself, in order to truly find yourself and learn and develop who you are and who you are in Christ. After all, how can you find your true self and your true calling when you are caught up with another person?! Yes, this time probably means being single but why shouldn't that be embraced?! If we embrace this time, we learn to build a firm foundation for our future, for life. We become strong in who we are and what we desire and we become strong in Christ. It is then that we can embrace family, embrace life with another. The foundation is built so the family stays strong and lasts. After all, shouldn't family be forever, just as marriage is?!

Family is exciting and the family that we will one day create I believe is more important than the family we are already a part of, our parents family. Without this family that isn't called our own, where we are imparted into, where we are grown and where we learn things for the family we will one day have, we are nothing...this family is important but it's not the end!!

As the first day of 2008 comes to a close, I pray that this year people will embrace their circumstances - whether they are single or not, whether they are still living in their parents family or have already started creating their own, so they may be blessed and strengthened and encouraged. May you embrace family for what it is and everyday live for your family...to remain strong and therefore FOREVER.

Bring it on I say!! Love x