What is family?
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. — Genesis 2:24 (NIV)
Back in June I went to my family reunion. Since then I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what a family is. I can understand this verse in the context that a husband and wife shall become one flesh, but that doesn’t mean they are to ignore their parents (honor your father and mother stuff). Many times it is hard to draw those lines — you know those boundaries where we shouldn’t cross.
I remember when I was younger and living in West Virginia where most of my family was at the time, we would have huge dinners at our house around the holidays. Thanksgiving would bring aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and many more to our house. The women would gather in the kitchen and help my Mom fix all the food. Being the Daddy’s Girl that I am, I was always with the guys watching football 
It was a lot easier to keep up with what was happening in our extended family then. We were all apart of the same community. When we moved out of state, it was harder to keep up with some of the extended family. In today’s world, we often get caught up in our own busy schedules and rarely have the time to check in with extended family. We get to know what’s going on in our children’s friends’ lives and totally loose touch with our nieces and nephews.
We have all kinds of different families — our church family, our school family, our blood family, our blood and adopted family … etc. Our parents, our brothers and sisters, should not be forgotten when we “leave and cleave” to our spouses. So be sure to schedule some time (make it a priority!) to check in with your family.
Prayer: Lord, please help me reach out to my family — as awkward as that may be. I may feel like I’m talking to a perfect stranger, but I’m often nicer to perfect strangers than I am family. Lord, give me direction on how much to be involved with my family (and my husband’s family) and also to know when I am stepping over lines — when I should just let people deal with their issues. Help me to be a good witness of Your love to my family. Family are some of the toughest people to witness to because they have seen all of my ugliness. Use me for Your glory Lord. Bring Your glory out of mistakes I’ve made. Help my family to see Your love in place of my ugly sins.
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My husband came from a family with a needy and overly clingy mother. When we got married, he had to draw a line in the sand and let mother know what boundaries were now in place. It was one of the hardest things that he ever did, but we are much happier because of it.
For 10 years we lived 12 hours away from both of our immediate families, so I understand where you are coming from. Since we moved back we have become part of the fold again, but this time with boundaries and we are respected for that. We still honor our mother and father but they understand that “our” immediate family is our priority.
This is very good.
Thank you.
You’ve given me much to think about.