Remember The Family

Our Sunday Church service this week was about families, fathers in particular since it was Fathers Day. It was very timely. The Pastor talked about the role of families and the responsibility of fathers to lead their families. 

You’ve heard me talk about this many times. Statistics show the importance of a father in the home. There is no substitute for Dads, in the home, loving their kids and taking care of their families. 

Make no mistake, there is a concerted effort to redefine and devalue the nuclear family. There are those who support any kind of family structure except a father in the home taking care of the family. It’s a huge mistake to abandon our time tested traditions. “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

Over a year ago, the world was going into lockdown to protect its citizens from COVID-19. At the beginning of COVID-19, everyone was scared, and no one knew what was happening or when it would end. 

During the beginning of quarantine, I remember checking Facebook periodically, where I would see families together and becoming closer. I also remember the dreadful times of checking social media and seeing family members, friends and friends of family members passing away. 

COVID-19 has impacted everyone’s life. If a family member passed away, lost a job, colleges closed and kids returned home, there were changes in almost everyone’s lives. The reasoning behind COVID-19 is unknown, but it has served a purpose and has done it loudly. That purpose has been to teach and show how family is precious. 

The families that lost a family member put a whole family in shock. That shock led to families contacting one another that they may not have talked to in years, their conversations of grievance from sharing stories of the loss in the family to how they are handling COVID-19. 

The mom who was furloughed from her job, because of COVID-19, got to spend more time with her children and cook dinner for her family to have the first family dinner in a while. The mom was able to play with her kids more than ever before and created the family game night tradition, which happened every night during COVID-19. 

The college student who was sent home because of COVID-19 came back, irritated at first, but as they watched updates waiting for college to reopen, they saw the toll that COVID-19 was taking on the whole country. Later that night, that college student compassionately hugged their parents for the first time in years. 

From a lost family member to losing a job or even coming home from college due to COVID-19, all three scenarios were all challenging, stressful, and even depressing. All of these cases taught one another how precious family is.

When I think of COVID-19 Quarantine, I think of my daughter joining Ancestry.com, where she started researching my husband’s and my family heritage. 

Her findings were interesting at first, seeing where my husband’s side immigrated from, but she was having trouble with my side of the family. There seemed to be an empty space. But then she discovered something amazingly shocking. I have four new sisters and one brother that I had never known. 

When I found this out, I was shocked; I didn’t know what would happen or if they would even accept me or want to talk to me. My brother reached out, and when we spoke for the first time, he was more excited than me. We were able to draw the line that the man that raised me and that I called “dad” was not my dad. My father was his father.

I have always said and believed that family is precious, and this situation has taught me that family is even more precious than I ever thought. Now I have two wonderful families.

Two weeks ago, as has been the case with many families, we gathered at my house to celebrate the life of my brother in law. He passed away months ago during Covid quarantine. We were finally able to gather together and say our goodbyes and tell stories of his life. It was so wonderful to see everyone again. It had been way too long.

Family is precious.