Just like everybody in the world, I was born into a family. I have one dad, one mom, and two older brothers. Now I would call this family my immediate family. At some point in time, we all lived together, learning what it meant to be a family. As my brothers and I have grown up, we have flown the nest meaning that at this point in time, we don't live at home with mom and dad anymore, but are living independently out in the world. My parents do still live in my childhood home so every time I go visit them, all the memories come flooding back. Over the past 11 years, my immediate family has expanded by 5 people. My eldest brother married a wonderful lady and together they have 3 girls, making them my 3 nieces. Then my other brother had a son, making him my nephew. So that is my immediate family that I am proud, privileged, honored and blessed to me apart of.
Now let me take you a little deeper into my family. There were some circumstance that happened before I was born that made the family that I was born into really large. For my parents to be born, they had their own parents and they also had their own siblings. My father is the middle of 7 kids and my mother is the 2nd oldest of 5 kids. At a given point, I would have 20 uncles and aunts. Then my uncles and aunts started having their own kids, making me have 39 cousins, combined from my mom and dad's side of the family. To make things crazy, when I was born, I had 7 grandparents. Now you may ask how I can have 7 grandparents. If my mom has two parents and my dad has two parents then I should only had 4 grandparents and that is true, but before I was born, my mom and dad's parents ended their marriages and then 3 out of 4 of them remarried other amazing, loving people. Some of my new grandparents brought their own children into their second marriages, giving me a few more uncles, aunts and cousins. To add another layers, I know my mom and dad's cousins, and then my cousins started getting married and having their own kids making cousin-in-laws and 2nd cousins. So my extended family as I call it is really large and I love being apart of this family.
Now you have been introduced into my biological family, the one I was born into. Now I am a Christian, which means that I believe in and have a relationship with a Heavenly Father. Once I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart and made Him my personal Lord and Savior, I became apart of a new family. A spiritual family. The family of God. It says in John 1:12 "all who believe and accept Him, He gave them the right to be children of God." So I have lots and lots of family members in the family of God. They included everybody who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. It feels amazing to have so many siblings.
Now I am going to take my family a step further. There have been many people in my life that I consider fathers, mothers, siblings, or grandparents that aren't actually blood related to me. These people have mentored me or impacted my life in such a way that they have become apart of my family. Now most of these people are Christians so we were already related from being apart of God's family. My mentors have become father and mother figures in my life. Now they haven't replaced my really parents because God blessed me with two parents that taught me life and raised me in a godly home and I am grateful for that. Then there are those of the younger generation whom I have interacted with that have become my nieces, nephews and siblings. If I haven't said it enough already, I love being apart of a large family.
Now almost three years ago, I made a decision that would transform me into the person that I am today. I entered Anna Ogden Hall which is the women and children's division of the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, WA. While I was living in that house, I became apart of another family that included many more spiritual brothers, sisters, and parental figures. Thy stood by me as I worked through many issues and hurts inside my life. To this day I still try to go back and visit as often as I can because I want to impact the ladies that are going through the program like I did. When I go back, it truly feels like I am going home to visit family.
The final family that I am going to tell you about is my new family that made me think about this topic in the first place which is the Lewis & Clark High School Girl's Basketball Program. The coaching staff became big sisters, and big brother mentors to me as I enter into my coaching career and those players became like little siblings to me. I pray that I impacted their lives, but I can honestly tell you that they all impacted my life. It didn't matter that it was my first year in the program, I was welcomed with opened arms. I have found lifetime friends/mentors and players whose careers I will follow because I know they are going to do great things in the future. I hope to one day the family atmosphere that I learned from being apart of this program and take it with me to which ever basketball program that I serve in or lead in the future.
So as you can see, I am apart of many different families. Now for me, the definition of family isn't just your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, or grandparents that are blood related to you that make up a unit, that is a type of dictionary definition. My personal definition of family is any person, biological, blood, spiritual or nothing at all that has an impact on your life or you have a relationship with, somebody who loves you for you and will be there for you whenever you need them. That is my definition of a family or family member. God did give us our blood families, but He placed us here on earth to make new families by communing with one another. I love being apart of many different families. I love each one of my family members very much. I pray that you can say that you are apart of multiple families.
Until next time, May God bless you with multitudes of family members who love you very much.
T~Money
