New Family

      I have a private Facebook account that I use only for my family, but sometimes getting on there can be hurtful or disappointing. I try not be an attention seeker or drama starter, I really only try to put up things I'm celebrating, or occasionally a prayer request, photographs, and sometimes post that are encouraging, in general I don't post much at all there, I'm far more active on google+. A big reason why I don't post much on there is that I find it really hurtful that the people I try to support the most, my family, doesn't often support me in return. I often feel very rejected by the majority of them. It's not like that with all of them, mostly just my cousins, those in my generation I'm talking about, but even some of my aunts and uncles leave me feeling this way too.
       I have always been family minded so this is something that cuts deep for me. Then this morning when I was getting frustrated on that chain of thought, whining to myself and God about how it doesn't feel like my family doesn't cares about me the same way I do them, I was reminded of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I thought about Jesus and His reaction when His mother came to see Him while He was teaching one day, how He had said to the person who was sent in to get Him that those doing the will of God were his mother and brothers. I realized then that I do have a family that loves and supports me the way I do them, a family that I serve the Lord with, a family in the body.
       Yes, my flesh and blood family doesn't support me the way I would them if the tables were turned, but my brothers and sisters of the kingdom do. I realize now that its probably the very thing that separates me from one family that adds me to the other. I realize now that it's less about whether they love me or not and more that don't knows how to take me a lot of the time. I'm different from them and always have been, but before I came to God it was never so obvious as it is now, and I think it makes them uncomfortable.
      Realizing what the difference was, and why things are like this, I decided to focus on my new family, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am not giving up on my flesh and blood family, but I'm not going to let their lack of support hurt me anymore either. I am just going to pray for them, love them, celebrate with them, and stop expecting them to do the same for me. God has been good to me and given me a new family, and new friends that are heading in the same direction that I am, and maybe someday, the rest of my family will join us. But until then, I realize I do have a loving, supportive family, through Jesus Christ. Be blessed brothers and sisters, and thank you so much!

Mark 3:31

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”