An Open Letter to the World

Dear Everyone in the Entire World,

Here's the deal- not a single one of us decided what family we would be born in to.   Not a single one of us decided if we were going to be first born, middle children, the baby of the family, or even an only child. Even for blended families like mine, I fully believe THOSE THINGS WERE CHOSEN BY GOD.

None of us chose who we were going to be raised by.  Someone else chose if our parents we were going to be loving or unloving, supportive or not, involved or nonexistent.   We didn't choose if we were going to be spanked, switched, timouted to death, ignored, or grounded as punishments for our bad choices.  THOSE THINGS WERE CHOSEN BY OUR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.

What we can choose is how we treat the members of our families God gave us and how we respond to the families raised us.  THOSE ARE THE THINGS WE CAN CHOOSE. 

God actually carefully considered each person that is in your family when he crafted it together.   Instead of being resentful for the family that God chose for us, we should be excited to know that no matter what God thought we were best for each other.

And instead of blaming everything on our parents and sabotaging every relationship from junior high to our adult life for how someone else made choices for your family, know that all those things made us who we are are.  If we are trying to get revenge or get even for the way we were raised, we are actually hurting others and that will never heal us.  We can either move forward and learn to love or end up lonely because we're afraid to love.

We can't take back the past.  No one has that power but Jesus Christ and he has never done that, that has been recorded anyway.  Let's start new today, for heaven's sakes.  Let's show love to our family and friends whether they are wonderful to us or hurt us today. 

With honest and sincere love,
Amanda