Family is not alway great....but it is good....

Odd post title right? The point is this...No matter how many troubles you may go through as a family (and we all do) it is still worth it in the end....My family is dysfunctional and kind of odd...I have children from a previous marriage (all almost adults now...in fact one is...) and that relationship was a bust in the biggest kind of way...but it did leave me with children which I value and cherish...(obviously).. and yet even the greatest joys of my life have caused me immense pain and anger at different points of our relationship. Krystal (my 19 year old) ran away at 15, and pretty much threw away everything we ever taught her including our relationship...and I have to admit that at that point, I really did question having children at all. Yet today she is a very hard working and pretty responsible girl, who has given me a wonderful grandson I think the world of. She makes me laugh, and has impressed me with the way she has taken on the challenge of parenthood when I wasn't quite sure she was up to it...and I know that there is still more growing for her to do, and I look forward to getting to know the person she is becoming. Brandy and Bree have also given me many gray hairs the last couple of years...Brandy with her sneaking out the window escapades to name one of many...and I am sure that Bree is scheming in her head ways to turn my hair gray...
I am on my second marriage...my husband is six years younger then me, and became an instant daddy which brought on its own set of challenges...but I have to say that he excelled at a very difficult job, and that as a team we did a very good job of raising our three girls. We have also faced some difficulties at different times in our relationship and at times I have also wondered if getting married again was a wise idea...I came with baggage, and Kendal is STUBBORN...(nooo.......) but I wouldn't trade our marriage for anything. Kendal is my best friend, and after 11 years of marriage I think we have learned some stuff....
Now we have a baby boy...Jeremy. We are stupid over him. We think he is the best thing ever created, and that no one else has a baby as wonderful as Jeremy....(sound familiar new parents?) but I know that in a couple of years, he will start to assert his Independence, and probably break my heart a couple of times....
My point is...family isn't always GREAT...but it is good. My family isn't perfect, but I wouldn't trade one of them for the world. There are always great joys, and great disappointments, but in the end it is my family which makes life worth living.
My family also makes me think of the absolutely unconditional love God has for us...His family. As a people we are pretty messed up. We come to Him as new Christians determined to be the best children ever, but it doesn't take long for us to start re-asserting our Independence.. Like my children, as we grow we have to fall on our faces a few times before we start to learn our lessons-and yet shock of shocks...knowing what I do now I still chose to have more children. God must feel frustrated with us, as we constantly throw all the lessons he teaches us out the window...and yet he values relationship with us enough that he loves us through all of it- We aren't always Great...and yet..God created us...and thought it was good..nothing in this life which is worth having is safe....but it can be good.

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
C.S. Lewis-Chronicles of Narnia