Family of Nuts

I don’t know why I let what other people say affect me so much…I guess I just think too much. Just recently (at Christmas) I was asked if I have had contact with my brother and if I knew if he still lived in Vancouver. My answers were NO and YES.

Okay, so if you have known me for whatever length of time you might not know that I DO have a brother. It is true I have no contact with him, but I know where he lives and all that. In fact, I have a niece, aunt, uncle and cousin who all live here in Vancouver. I have regular contact with my cousin – not much contact with my aunt & uncle and no contact with my niece. Anti-social? Maybe…but I have endured many issues during my growing up years and my self-imposed no contact order keeps me sane.

Now, you might be thinking, “Well, what about Tom’s family?” Well, with all the issues that I have with my family – if you know us, you know that the Bennett family is not without issues – and a no contact order is not an option.

On the flip side…

We have been regular attendees/members of Felida Baptist Church for almost 20 years and we have been blessed to have such a great group of friends who we consider family because really, they are the ones who know us best - the good, the bad AND the ugly! Our friendships go back for almost as long as we have been at Felida. That’s a long time to get to know one another and to grow in faith with one another and to call these friendships GOOD. If I could choose a new “immediate” family I would choose each one of my close friends AND the cool part is that the other people that don’t make the first cut are our extended family. Simply stated, love my church family. We are definitely a family which includes a crazy “aunt” or two and the weird “cousins” that live under a rock or whatever – hahaha! The great thing is that I know their heart attitude and I know that with each member of my church family, Jesus is right there in the middle of it all.

God knew exactly what we needed when he guided us to Felida so many years ago so that we can be a part of a fabulous family of Jesus followers!