Thursday Thought: Family Is Where You Go to Learn How to Love and Accept Others

For some reason, we think that family is a place where a group of individuals all get along, agree, and love and accept each other no matter what. Maybe that would be the ideal, but it’s a rarity if it even exists.

When I go into a situation where I’m going to be around family, I check my thoughts. Am I expecting them to love and accept me? It’s been really helpful to change this thought to, “Family isn’t where I go to be loved and accepted. It’s where I go to learn how to love and accept others.”

Isn’t that the beauty of families? You have a group of individuals, who are connected because they were born into the same family, or adopted into the same family. You don’t choose who your family is. Sometimes you have very different lifestyles, opinions, and interests. You just get to learn to love and accept whoever they are. They may or may not return love and acceptance, but you still get to feel it, because you choose to.