Family

What are we but an extension of those that come before us and after us? Don’t they make us who we are and keep us connected to the world around us? I think of my parents when I think of my history. I have no history without my parents. I wouldn’t have come into existence had my parents not participated in the creation of me. What an awesome gift that is to me and hopefully to all those people that are connected to me.


The connection to people is so immense when you start to put a number around it. I think of how my life and the life of my husband have impacted our children and even our parents. Haven’t we through how we’ve lived and through how they have lived learned so many things? I think I have. It also grows through our connection to the world outside of our immediate families.

I think of how when I traveled to China on business that the impact of how I exist through my parents and how I am who I am through the influence of my children that I influenced those in the room in a meeting in an industrial town in the city of Shengli, China. We can’t disconnect from that experience. We always have the connection no matter how big or small. We can’t ignore it even when we don’t understand or acknowledge the connection. I am so overwhelmed with the sense of “We are one body, one body in Christ….” This is a fundamental truth of life.

This also reminds me of a time when someone made accusations of someone in my life that were not founded in the truth and how I was so angry, so very angry. I prayed and reflected on the actions of the individual and on my reaction of anger. God was so clear in his words to me that I had to apologize to the woman. God told me that He loved that woman so much, and that I needed to look beyond the recent action and see what He saw in the woman. Look at her as a woman of service and a woman that lives out her vocation of motherhood with great purpose and great honor. He asked me to understand the He forgives her for her wrong actions just like he forgives me for my wrong actions. Why can’t I see beyond the action to the soul of the woman and see His face in her face?

I prayed and asked for this and He granted the request. I was able to write her an apology note and ask her to forgive me for not honoring her as God honors her. We smiled and hugged and moved to the next moments in our life. We were connected forever in this moment, a moment that began because each of us is a creation from God that extends from the human experience.

How awesome is He in trusting us with such an enormous gift. I pray that we too respect and love those around us in our families and in our connections through our families just as God trust and loves us. I pray this whether our connections in life are the family that lives next door to us or the family that lives in Shengli, China.

Peace and talk to you again soon,


Eileen