Love Our Family Series

Introduction

Video Ill.: Our Imperfect Family - Pixel Preacher

Raise your hand today if your family is perfect! Anyone?

Hopefully you’re not like the family in this story. You hear jokes about someone being left behind, but I often wonder does it really happen? I guess the answer is yes!

Dad Left at Gas Station on Family Vacation

Source: WMC-TV, "Kids leave dad at gas station, realize mistake 100 miles away," (6-25-13)

Copied from Preaching Today

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2013/may/1052713.html

WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee, reported the story a few years back about a Texas dad (who did not want to offer his name) who had some unexpected excitement on his family vacation. After the man and his family spent the night at a hotel in Memphis, they stopped to eat and fill up their gas tank. That's when the trip got really interesting. When the family hit the road they left dad behind at the gas station.

The father explained what happened: "Somebody had been sleeping all night in the back and they were going to drive and I was going to get in the back and sleep. I went inside to get my change for the gas and they thought I was already loaded up and closed all the doors and took off."

The dad tried to call his own cell phone, which was still in the van, but nobody answered it. He said, "Six different cell phones and nobody answers and my phone is in there because it's on the charger and nobody answers it and then it starts going straight to voicemail. I mean, that's odd."

The father called the police, but it was social media that saved the day. The frantic dad borrowed a computer from a local motel and got in touch with his family through Facebook. The van was about 100 miles away by the time he finally reached his family. The story had a happy ending: the family turned around, picked up dad, and continued their vacation. The dad indicated to reporters that he's confident the entire incident was just a huge mistake.

Your family is not perfect. My family is not perfect. And you know what? That’s OK. After all, we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world.

But, we do live in a world where everyone can create assumptions on our lives based on the perceptions we give, especially through social media. This can be detrimental to relationships, marriages and families. After all, who says we have to have all of our ducks in a row? We are all in this imperfect world together and no one has it all perfectly together. Amidst all of our shortcomings, though, the family — our families — are at the heart of God’s plan for His world.

Everybody Loves Raymond

Season 7, Episode 17 Meeting the Parents

The TV show Everybody Loves Raymond is about Raymond Barone and his wife Debra. They live across the street from Ray’s parents, Frank and Marie. Ray’s single brother, Robert, lives with his parents.

After an on and off relationship with Amy, Robert and Amy finally get engaged. There’s an episode that takes place shortly after their engagement where Robert and Amy are hosting a brunch at Amy’s apartment for Ray, Debra, Frank and Marie. Unexpectedly, Amy’s parents show up to visit for the first time. Her parents, though, were not really there for a visit, but rather to try to get Amy to break off the engagement with Robert.

The two families meet for the first time, and are as different as night and day. A war of words breaks out between the two families, feelings get hurt, and Amy ends up running into the bedroom and locking herself in. After several family members try to talk her into coming out, Ray finally goes to try to talk to Amy. Through the door, he tells Amy that she and Robert need to think about their own lives, and not what the rest of the family thinks. At the end, Ray says that after all, “nothing good can come from family….”

Amy does come out of the bedroom after that. She and Robert leave to go out for brunch, leaving the rest of the family behind.

We all may feel like that sometimes. Nothing good can come from family.

The biggest struggles we have in life happen in our families.

The family is really one of our most vulnerable places. The people in our family rarely see us at our best, and most often see us at our worse. When the masks for the outside world come off, the real us is shown in the family.

Despite all of the problems we may experience in our families, the family is one of the foundational Godly institutions of the world.

You see, in the beginning, God created man, then woman, and then instructed them to “be fruitful and multiply”. In doing so, God blessed, even ordained the institution of family.