Family Matters
“Don’t mess with the family.”
You’ve probably heard that statement in a mafia movie or television program. I can’t identify with being part of an organized crime syndicate, but I understand the sentiment.
I find it fairly easy to adopt a turn-the-other-cheek attitude (Matthew 5:39) if someone treats me rudely. I struggle to know the correct response if someone mistreats or excludes my son, wife or extended family members. If you have a sibling, you may believe it’s fine for you to tease your brother or sister, but you get angry if someone outside your family treats your sibling that way.
Much of this “connected family” issue discusses parenting, a key topic in the Bible (fmchr.ch/parentbible), but I believe this issue also is relevant to people who do not have children or many living family members. Bishop David
Kendall’s article on connection, for example, applies to everyone. In the words of John Donne, “No man is an island.”
Our connections matter regardless of the size of our nuclear family. According to
1 Corinthians 12, we are a family of “brothers and sisters” in the “body of Christ,” and “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
Jeff Finley, Managing Editor
Downloadable PDF: LLM February 2015
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Features
- Table of Contents
- [Feature]: Handling Social Media with Your Kids
- [Foundation]: 5 Ways to Invest in Your Kids
- [Bishops]: Connection, Communication, Communion
- [Discipleship]: God’s Sacred Gift
- [Action]: Seeing Leaders Takes Guts
- [World]: Freedom and Hope
- [Free Methodist Church News and Briefs]: Does Your Church Need a Website?
