What Can We Do to Protect The Family?

Disclaimer: I know that not everyone has the so called "perfect family" situation. I understand that there are blended, divorced, broken, and even complicated family situations. If your family are your friends, co-workers, neighbors, pets, classmates, or others I have failed to mention, know that you can still partake! If I offend you by feeling like I don't include you, or others you know, I sincerely apologize. It is not my intention to offend, just to share the things I have learned and am passionate about. 

Every family is different. That is a full blown, 100% true fact that everyone is aware of. No matter how much you try to control the factors that make individuals unique, it simply cannot be done. There is no way that a single person is exactly the same, especially when it comes to their temperament, personality, sleep schedule, or even the foods that they enjoy. The same thing applies to families. Every family is different, so that automatically results in different beliefs, relationships and circumstances. 

Now that we got that fact down as our foundation, I want you to ignore what I just said for a minute  and think about the similarities that your family and families around you have. Maybe your family has a set, annual vacation around the same time another family has theirs? Maybe you have the same amount of children or siblings another family does? Do other families have the same traditions that you do?

Once you have identified what your family has in common with another, take that same scenario and now find the differences. Your family goes on your annual vacation the same time as another? That's great! Sounds like fun! However, I'm assuming you aren't going to the exact same place, to do the exact same thing, and have the exact same experiences as the other family.

Your family has 5 children? That's cool, there are 5 children in my family as well! In spite of that, I'm pretty sure that not all of your children/siblings were born on the exact same day, at the exact same time, with the exact same circumstances that my family had. Maybe you have more girls than boys? What if all you had was girls? What about twins? The possibilities are endless! I could go on about this, but I think you get my point. We are all similar in some way or another, but it's the smallest factors that truly make us, and our families, unique. 

So, what exactly does comparing our family to another have to do with protecting the idea of family itself? My goal for this post was to make you think about your families, regardless if you are actually related by blood or not, and to help you realize how important and special your individual family is.

I know that society has warped the idea of even having or creating a family. I believe that they have warped the idea of families and now makes them undesirable.  Families are now belittled, frowned upon, and cumbersome; my hope was to help you to realize how important they truly are. Families, (once again, whether by blood or not), help us to get through many things such as the challenges of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

I know that when I was going through a hard time whether it was with school or work, my family was always there to help me through it. That is why I feel like family is so important; you always have someone to help you when things are going wrong. An activity that I have a goal to start doing, is to write down on a calendar, (of the current year of course), is to write down one thing that either I have done for my family, or something my family has done for me. I would like to challenge you to join me in that challenge, so that you can realize all of the small things that make not only individuals unique, but families unique.

"Family isn't always blood; it's the people who are in your life, who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to make you smile and who love you no matter what." 

Here is a question I want to leave you with: What can you do to protect your family?