We ARe FAmily

Monday was a very strange evening in my house. I got home from basketball practice at about 6:00 pm and my daughter and wife were sitting in the kitchen talking. As I walked in my daughter exclaimed, “Dad, you’re home; wait, everyone is home at the same time!”

As a parent of three adult children, all living at home, yet all with different schedules, this rarely happens. When I told her I was supposed to head out to scout a basketball game she asked me to please stay home. Knowing how rare these occasions are I agreed. That night for the first time in months the five of us sat at the dining room table and had dinner together.

I honestly can’t remember the last time this happened. We ate and talked and laughed and talked some more. There was nothing special about it. It was just another Monday night. We used to sit for dinner together as a family all the time. But because lives have changed, it was a special night in that it was an ordinary family dinner. At the risk of sounding nostalgic, I am going to remember that evening for a long time.

God gives us family for a reason. He wants us to be around others and feel this closeness with our family. Psalm 68:6 tells us, “God sets the lonely in families.” One thing we always say in the High School I work at is "we are a family." We want every student to feel like they are a part of this family and that they always have a home here.

I pray we all remember we have a loving Father who calls us His children as we are a part of His family.