Getting Along - The Family

 As family, we can carry distinctive features and traits that are passed on from parents to children.  This doesn't make us clones of our parents but it does mean we carry a family characteristic.  It is discernible and part of what defines us - people can recognise the similarities found in family.

God's sense of humour carries into family...He binds us together in our DNA and then says..."Here you go - live, learn, love, laugh and enjoy your life together...and celebrate your differences."

"Celebrate your differences"  He says.  Like it was an instruction to add chocolate topping to the ice cream so we'd appreciate the ice cream more.

Celebrate our differences?!!! Did He have any idea what that was going to look like?

We spend our lives trying to keep the peace with family as we discover our differences, tolerate our differences as best we can, avoid discussing our differences whenever we don't feel like tolerating them...and never really get our heads around "celebrating" them until we're too old to enjoy celebrating anything.

Unless of course, we spend time with God and learn from Him how wonderful family really is and how we can indeed, celebrate our differences.  And thankfully, we have DNA that keeps us connected throughout the journey.

'Getting Along' is a new series about life from a fresh perspective.  See the article at Getting Along (#2) The Family.

Note:  Interesting thing about the Cacti family...they're more impenetrable when they stick together.  We could learn something from that.

Getting Along - A New Series

God has a wicked sense of humour.  He fills a planet with people (currently 7.3 billion), giving each one the power of free will while also giving each one the gift of uniqueness.  He then says..."Off you go, have fun...but don't forget Me."  (paraphrased)  We hear the "Off you go, have fun" bit and in the vast majority of cases, forget Him.  You can just hear Him saying to Himself..."This should be interesting..."

Well, we all live our lives according to ourselves - that's the free will and uniqueness thing in full swing.  The consequences are, we struggle to get along as we passionately and determinedly pursue 'our way' of living life.

One reason God said "...but don't forget Me" was so that we could give Him opportunity to guide us and counsel us in life, in getting along with others, using His wisdom.  The proof of forgetting Him is around us everywhere, all across the planet.  Using our 'wisdom', we end up in trouble.  Remembering Him and using His wisdom we avoid trouble and can actually get along.

'Getting Along' is a new series about life from a fresh perspective.  The first article is found at Getting Along (#1) - The Lens.

Note:  Interesting thing about Cacti - if you respect them, you can get close enough to appreciate them.  If you don't approach them with respect, you'll find they have an interestingly painful defense mechanism.  Sound familiar?