You Can Pick Your Friends, But You're Stuck With Your Relatives

During the holidays, typically, familes get together to reconnect & to reacquaint cousins with aunts, uncles & more cousins. In my family, we all tried to hit as many bases as we could. My dad would take us to a variety of relatives' houses each holiday season. We would usually hit a few on my dad's side during Thanksgiving...staying overnight with both his brothers living in South Arkansas, attending our annual reunion, stopping by my great-grandmother's home, then to my grandmother's sister's house & maybe some other relative living nearby.

Christmas would sometimes find us on the other end of Arkansas, visiting my mother's kinfolk... I remember one year, we stayed over a week's time & spent the night with my grandma, my two great uncles, & my mom's first cousin. They all lived within a 25 mile radius...with my 2 uncles living across town from each other. We didn't do this every year, but we tried to at least make a overnight visit or an afternoon visit pretty regular.

As a parent, I try to be as consistent in visiting relatives on my side as well as my wife's side of the family. Since my parents have passed on, I do devoutly make the annual trip to Arkansas for my Thanksgiving reunion, & try to stop by to see some of my mom's relatives in Northwest Arkansas every other year so they can see how the kids have grown. And, my mother-in-law is welcomed to our home regularly to spend a few weeks with us...and we try to make it to see her, too, as well as my brother-in-law.

However, we get a annual 2 hr. visit from my sister every year. That's it, and not much more. Her family has never spent a night at my house - ever. One year, when my parents were both alive, we had probably the last chance to have our entire family together: Me, my sis, Mom, & Dad...all over at my house for a Sunday dinner. My sis, instead chose to eat with her in-laws (who lived across town) because "Grammy" was celebrating the grandson's birthday...3 months after the fact. But she would come "watch us eat".

What's up w'dat?

Now, this year... My sis's family drive up to PA - mainly to see her in-laws & her husband's family - and can stop by to see us if it's not going to interfere with them making good time to see her husband's family.

Frankly, I just feel like tellng her that we really do not need the "obligitory" visit if it is such an interruption into visiting her family.

Yeah, I don't have any of my family living anywhere near Central PA...but I do have some wonderful friends in my church & my neighborhood. And, the family I do have that lives mostly down South, are closer to me than my own sis...mainly because I see them annually & remain in touch with them on a fairly regular basis.

Do I regret it? Not really. Will my sister? Time will tell, I guess.

I just spend the night with a friend of mine who lives in Northwest PA (where I lived for 18 years after moving out of Arkansas) & felt so connected with this friend & his family that I really do not have any regrets about the dis-jointed relationship I have with my sis. I just wonder if, in 20 years, she will wish things had been different.

I look at this past year & see how God has blessed me with some awesome experiences with friends I feel close to. I look at what is in store in the next year & feel excited about where God is leading me & who He will use in my life. We're ringing in the new year with the family of a friend of my oldest son. Another chance to connect to a new friend who will become a new member of our ever-growing extended family.

Twelve Inches

I read this devotion this morning and felt not only to repost it, but to add some comments & lyrics to a very deep song.

By Os Hillman
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. - 1 Samuel 3:7

Samuel was born to Hannah, a woman who had a deep commitment to God. She was
barren, but she cried out to God for a son. The Lord gave her Samuel, whom she
completely gave to the Lord for His service. After weaning him, she took him to
the house of the Lord to be reared by the priests. Eli was the priest of Israel,
but he was not a godly leader. He had allowed much corruption, including the
sins of his sons, in God's house. God was not pleased with Eli and later judged
him and his household.

Samuel grew up in the temple serving God. He also
grew up seeing the hypocrisy of Eli's household, yet this did not change the
young man. God was with him. We learn that even though young Samuel had a belief
in God, he had not yet experienced a personal relationship with Him. God called
to Samuel three times, but Samuel thought it was Eli, the priest, calling him.
Finally, Eli told him to say, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening" (1
Sam. 3:9b). This is what Samuel did, and God began telling Samuel important
things to come.

Many of us grow up in religious environments. We go to
church every week. We have a head knowledge of God, but we do not recognize
God's voice in our lives. There comes a time when we must recognize God's voice
for ourselves. God does not want us to have a religion; He wants us to have a
two-way relationship with Him. Samuel was never the same after this encounter.
He would know God's voice and would respond to Him in obedience.

Do you know God's voice? Can you recognize it when He speaks? In order to hear God's voice, you must be clean before Him and listen. Listen to God's voice today and follow His plans for you.

---

So many of us have a head knowledge about God...but will miss eternal life in Heaven by twelve inches....the distance between your head & your heart.

Veteran musician Larry Norman said it best in his spoken word composition called, The Tune:

Once there was a tune and everyone knew how it went
But as time went by, people began to forget
Until at last no one could remember.
And there was hatred, and wars, and death.

Then one day somebody said, "How
does the tune go?"

"There is no tune, there never was; it's only a
myth."
These were the philosophers.

"You mean there's no tune at
all?"

"Well, it doesn't really matter what tune you play
As long as you play something."
These were the religious leaders.

And so the world played on.
And there was hatred, and wars, and death.

Then one day the people became weary of this song
And they all sat down on the side of a hill
And suddenly they heard a very strange voice
And somebody said, "That sounds like the tune."

"There is no tune, there never was, there never will
be."

"Well, it doesn't really matter what tune you play
As long as you play something
And you don't hurt anybody - especially me."

But the people listened
And a man appeared before them
With a smile on his face
And a sad look, too,
And he was singing the tune.

And some of the people began to sing along.
And the people who loved Him
Decided to follow him,
But the people who hated him
Decided to kill him.
And they did.

And when it was finished,
They went back to their houses of philosophy and religion
And they sat down to their tables to eat and drink.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a familiar voice
And they ran to their windows and looked outside
To see who it was.
It was him.

And they became confused and afraid
And they wondered how they could be rid of him
Once and for all.
And while they were watching him,
Something very strange happened.

"How did he do that?"
"I don't really know, but he's gone...
And when trouble goes, you don't ask where.
He'll never return again. I hope."

Yet again they were interrupted.
This time they ran out into the streets to lay hold of him
But they couldn't find him.
Just a lot of people smiling, and they all know the tune.

And when the people made a mistake
They stopped and they listened.
That's how they knew the tune,
Because they listened.

And if you listen, you'll hear it.
It's all around you.

Just listen to your radio,
Watch television,
Listen to your leaders, to the authorities,
To the governments, to the experts.

But if you really listen,
You can hear another tune,
But you have to listen quietly,
And you have to listen every day.