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RAMblings...
From the desk of
R
onnie A. Missildine


9/2/10

Family Reunions

Brothers

   

Text Box: Register Family Reunion
        My mother’s family, the Registers, will be having its annual reunion Saturday in Alabama.  It has been held the Saturday before Labor Day for many years.  Sandra and I plan to go.  It’s a time to be with the family and renew very important family ties.  It used to be a time to see grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.  Now, the cousins are the only ones left, except for my mother; she is the only child of Jessie and Sally Register who remains.  I lost my last uncle, Lee, and my last aunt, Sara, since the last reunion.  So that just leaves my mother.  It will be a sad time for her, but she wouldn’t miss the occasion for anything.  I always enjoy reconnecting with my cousins, and learning about the directions their lives have taken, and sharing what’s happing in mine.  The amazing thing is that they are all getting older – of course, I’m not, right?  Wrong!

        My physical family is spread all over the country.  Just in my immediate family, my mother and brother live four hours away in central Alabama.  I am seven hours from my sister who lives in Long Beach, Mississippi. Three of my children and eight grandchildren live two and a half hours away, and one child and two grandchildren live eight hours away.  My cousins and their families live all over the country.  I don’t get to see any them nearly as often as I’d like – that’s one of the down sides to being in the ministry.

        But guess what!  I have another family – my spiritual family!  And they live right nearby!  Some live just up the road, some just across the creek from me; some just across town; but all only a short distance away.  And I get to see and be with them often – several times a week.  And it is a great blessing, because my spiritual family is as important to me spiritually, as my earthly family is physically.  And actually, I feel closer to my spiritual family here at Central, than I do those of my earthly family who are not Christians.  I have so much more in common with my spiritual family because my service to Jesus through that family is the focus and center of my life.  And those of my earthly family who are not Christians have a much different focus, a worldly one.  And I want no part of that.  Now, I have a special blessing in that a good portion of my earthly family is also in my spiritual family; and we do have the same spiritual focus.  But not all of the Missildines or Registers are Christians, so that spiritual bond can’t be there.  Don’t get me wrong, I love them dearly.  But I just don’t have much in common with them.

        But not so with my spiritual family here at Central!  And all the Family Reunions are preciousroots treeevery Sunday, every Wednesday, and lots of times in between; any chance we get!  We worship together.  We join our voices to lift praise to our Father. We join our hearts together to go before Him with thanksgiving and petition in prayer.  We commune with each other and with the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit as we remember the precious gift of salvation in Jesus.  We pool our material resources as a gift to them, and to accomplish the work they have given us to do here on the earth.  Family Reunions are great!

        In my spiritual family there’s no fussing and fighting.  There’s no sibling rivalry.  At other Family Reunions during the week we take care of each other, whatever the needs are.  We laugh together when good things happen.  We cry together when the bad times come.  We hurt for each other when anyone is sad or hurting, and we rejoice with each other when any good thing happens to any one of us.  We provide each other’s spiritual needs, and very often even physical ones.

        Some of our spiritual “fathers and mothers” lovingly correct the younger ones; and that’s what’s supposed to happen in strong, close families.  Sometimes that’s needful and necessary; but in it, love always abounds!  And through it we grow and become stronger.

        I’ll enjoy going to the Register reunion Saturday in Alabama.  But I will be anxious to get back to my spiritual Family Reunion in Dalton on Sunday here at Central.  I love my earthly family; but I also love my spiritual family – dearly!  My brothers and sisters are precious to me, and I can’t wait for those Family Reunions every week!  How about you?

                                                            I really do love you -- Ronnie

 
 
 

Christ is Central to our Faith
"We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel..."

Colossians 1:3-5

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