An Open Letter to My Family
This is my family. This is not how my family started out, but this is how my family is now. Neither my birth father nor birth mother are in the photo, but Godly men and women who represent them are. This is my family.
This is a family birthed by the LORD through His infinite goodness and redemptive mercy. This is a family birthed from hurt and loss to become a joyous mosaic of all God’s light and love. This is my family.
This is a family that has seen its fair share of heartache, loss, anger, confusion, frustration, and uncertainty. But through it, God has triumphed! Bringing comfort, restoration, peace, clarity, tranquility, and certainty. This is my family.
This is a family that was brought together by young men meeting young ladies and saying YES to what each other brought to their lives. They said YES to suffering through the hurts of loss of relationships to bring forth greater relationships, with each other and the LORD. This is my family.
This is a family I am part of. I’m humbled by the LORD’s goodness in my life to bring this about. I’m not going to pretend to know all the individual stories and feel all the individual pain each one of my family members carry, I can only bring my own. But through the healing of the pain, thanks to the LORD, I’ve been able to experience the LIFE He has for me and see the FRUIT of the LIFE He has had for my family members. This is my family.
This is a family that has made me a mother, daughter, sister, auntie, and my favorite-a wife. I don’t know how to do all those roles, but I’m learning. I’m learning to be better at those roles. I’m learning how to navigate the conversation of something I’m not versed in. I’m learning to walk through the space of being a step-mom to bi-racial kids in a world that’s changing at lightening speed around them. I’m learning to understand the struggle and pain my in-loves had to endure because of their relationship. I’m learning my place in the space of conversation and trying to understand. This is my family.
This is a family that believes in The Greatest Commandment…“Jesus answered him, ‘The most important of all the commandments is this: The LORD Yahweh, our God, is one! You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, with every thought that is within you, and with all your strength. This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is this: You must love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. You will never find a greater commandment than these.’ “(Mark 12:30-31 The Passion Translation) This is my family.
This is a family that is not only pictured here but is all over the globe. A family of believers that come together under God’s love and mercy to walk out these two Commandments. This is what I’m learning. When I can truly live through the lens of these two things, the Love of God prevails and I learn more than I ever could. These two things help me remember God created EVERYONE and EVERYTHING and we are all made in HIS Image. I’m not the most woke person and I may never really be, but I am a child, in a family…God’s family, who has a responsibility to love my other family members. This is my global family.
This is a global family with differing views, experiences, beliefs, desires, needs, and lives. We look differently from each other, we have different experiences and different outcomes, but we are a global family. I’m sure we won’t always agree, no family does. Family is messy, but messy shouldn’t stop us from being family. Messy families do messy things but we can clean up the mess when we love the LORD and our brothers and sisters. I know it’s so much deeper and harder than that, but this is where we need to start. We need to listen and not argue, we need to honor and not disparage, we need to learn and share. This is (what I pray for) my global family.
This is an open letter to my family. A letter to thank them, bless them, let them know how much I love them and desire to honor them. Thank you for your love, support, guidance, wisdom and laughs. I’m so blessed the LORD has seen fit to place me in such amazing families, my original birth family and my additional family-in-love.
This is an open letter to my parents, William Dooley and Vicki Marie (Barthelemy) I love you, I miss you and I hope you’re proud of me and my family. (You’d really like them)
This is my family….WELCOME TO MY FAMILY…
#hot.mess.chick, @hotmesschick, @godsflaggirl, #familyiskey, #thisismyfamily, #thegreatestcommandment, #welcometomyfamily, #globalfamily, @cariannoconnellwatson
Hot Mess Chick 
One Response to “An Open Letter to My Family”
This is beautiful. Your family is beautiful. And what a privilege to walk with family in all its forms. Thank you for this God-honoring post. ♥
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