Friends or Family

Greetings everyone,
I realize it has been a while since we posted anything. We have been doing odds and end jobs around the training compound that I spent my teen years at. Last weekend Jim and I went with friends and my parents to the beach.  I have had the amazing blessing of being able to see old friends again. Jim and I were talking, and I was telling him about the people we were hanging out with. I told him how half the people around were people I had known for over half my life. I told him stories of people I have known since I was 5 years old. I pointed out the kids that I once baby sat. The kids who thought of me as a big sister, and who I though of as a little brother. All this to say, it got me thinking about friends and family.

Beach weekend with "family"

It is amazing the family that God has put into my life. I haven't lived with my parents in 6 years, since I was 15 years old. My older siblings all left home before that, so the people I call family aren't necessarily related to me by blood. From the time I was little I have been away from extended family, and so my aunts and uncles became those who lived around me at that time. I am constantly amazed at the "family" God has given me. No matter where I am, I am surrounded by people I can call family.

God's family is so much bigger than I can ever imagine and I am so thankful for that. My friends are people I have spend and shared my life with, and I am glad to call them family, because we are all Children of God, who has called us to be his own.