1. Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.  – John Wooden
2. Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.  – St. Francis of Assisi
3. We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.  – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
4. What can I do that won’t be done if I don’t do it? – Bill Clinton
5. Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn’t spend half our time wishing.  – Alexander Woollcott

With God, nothing is impossible…

© David McGhee

Every two years it amazes me how big my family is!  It’s good to come together from different states and different backgrounds to engage and interact with one another.  The older I get I find myself talking to the younger children the same way people often talked to me when I was their age.  I used to get mad when the elders in my family would approach me and say those four famous words: “Now, who yo parents?!”

This was their way of placing me with the appropriate group of folks.  However, I can tell I’m getting older because I’m now doing the same thing – even after I vowed to never ask that question because I didn’t like it myself.

But taking this into consideration, I subscribe to that notion that family is built on legacy that travels through many generations.  So when we come together we talk to each other and love on each other and have the “you remember when” conversations that are priceless!  Family reunions show that we are making an investment in our family and our future…

It reminds me of the Old Man…

There was an old man who decided that he was going to marry a young woman.  And as the story goes, he was an old jealous man.  As time passed he became very ill.  He pulled his wife by his bedside and said “Promise me that when I die, you are going to bury me with all of my money.  Because I don’t want you spending my money on any other man!  So make that promise, will you?”  She did.  So it came to pass that the old man passed away.  And at the funeral, the young woman approached the casket with her girlfriend by her side.  She pulled an envelope out of her purse and she placed it in the casket.  As she began to walk away with her girlfriend, her girlfriend just shook her head, saying “Tell me girl, that you didn’t keep that promise.”  The young woman replied, “I did, but I wrote him a check.”

The moral of the story is that, whatever we have now – this life that God has given us to share with one another – we must not take it for granted and cherish our family while they are yet alive.

There isn’t a family reunion that goes by when people don’t think, “Man, I wish such and such was here with us” or “Dang, I wish Grandma or Grandpa or Mom or Dad was here with us to see the kids”.  Spending quality time with family is imperative.

This brings me to three things I would like to offer, in effort to make every day of our lives ‘A Family Affair’.

Engage, Exercise, and Embrace.

Engage – in all that we do, individually and collectively, we must engage God in prayer for our family members.  Prayer is so important and the older I get the more and more I realize the power of prayer.  Not only that, I’ve also come to understand that I am living off of prayers that were prayed for me many, many years ago from the Elders of my family – when I didn’t even know they were praying for me.

Exercise – secondly, we must exercise our love for one another through genuine fellowship.  This means, taking steps to make sure that we keep in touch and not just wait until the next reunion.  Sure we live in different states and have different accents, and some have different last names.  But differences are smaller than the greater goal of ‘The Family’.

Embrace – we have to embrace our Legacy.  Embrace the fact that we are who we are because of our roots.  Roots provide the foundation for the tree (family tree).  As living vessels, we serve as the branches of our respective family trees; and therefore we must bear fruit.

The value of a tree isn’t determined by its size, its condition, or its location.  The true value of a tree is judge based on the fruit that it bears.

With God, nothing is impossible…

© David McGhee