Can I Just Say...I Love My Family

Chalk it up to being over tired, over stressed, under caffeinated, overly nostalgic, whatever.  What's on my mind right now is how much I love my family.  What a blessing they are!

My wife and I have been married over 24 years.  We dated through the last two years of high school and all through college (not something I recommend, but that's for another post), so we've been "together" for just over 30 years.  That's a long time for this beautiful woman to put up with me; all my quirks and faults; all my bad days; etc.  Add to that what she's had to tolerate for over 20 years as a pastor's wife and you'll see that if I were Catholic, I'd nominate her for sainthood.

Together God has graced us to raise four amazing children.  Our oldest daughter is in her final year of college, our oldest son just graduated and is working like a mad man while preparing for college, our youngest daughter will graduate in the spring, and the youngest is a 9 year old summary of the other three!  

Time and space prevent me (as well as the lack of interest on your part) from going into a lot of detail about each of them.  They each represent an amazing portrait of God's grace at work, and I can honestly say I couldn't love them more or be more proud of each of them.  What a joy to say that my children are my friends, and we actually enjoy hanging out together (when we can).

We don't have much from a worldly perspective; falling apart house, cars that seem to be on a revolving door at the repair shop, bare bones budget due to 20+ years on only one income (and that's the income of a small church pastor!).  Yet through it all, my wife and kids have never complained, never whined about what they don't have, etc.  They are a remarkable bunch of folks. 

I am a blessed man.  I just want folks to know that.  Maybe I just need to remind myself of that. And after all, this is my blog so I can write what I want.  It's always been more about my writing it than anyone else reading it, so this is my selfish, personal time.  I love my family.  I thank God for each one of them.  And if there is anything good in me, it's because of God's grace and these people, so credit where credit is due. 

I love my family.  How about you?