Ahhh, Family...

Parker Palmer, quaker writer, has these words to say of community:
"Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. So community is not a place where you love each other sort of freely and warmly and affectionately. Community is in fact the place where you are purified, where your love is tested, where your childhood of God is constantly put through the mill of human relationships."

Sometimes those family Christmas times bring out the best in us. Sometimes those family Christmas times bring out the worst in us. Relationally, I think if we can be open to it, God can use ALL of the relational experiences of the holidays to glorify himself and bring us closer to him.

Maybe a relationship can be deepened through honest conversation....

Maybe we learn to give grace where we never thought grace could be given...

Maybe we mourn what is not, and begin to move beyond it...

Maybe we are given the opportunity to lovingly speak truth...

Maybe we are brought together as we mourn a loss together...

Maybe where a family member is lacking, we allow God to fill in& it teaches us to further depend on him...

Maybe God will bring enlightenment as we've never known...

It is hard to know how God may break in. But if we are open, I believe he will break in. He is Immanuel.

Advent Action: When we're with family sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the patterns of youth. The 45 year old suddenly becomes the 10 year old again. Prior to your family gathering, check your posture before God. Seek to be used as a vessel. Allow him to be your strength.