Family and Truth....what is the connection?  If you were to have asked me this question a month ago, I wouldn´t have had a clue what you were asking me.  Today is another day, though.  And in order to understand the question I had to come to Germany and actually meet my family - the extended family, that is.  And in seeing them and getting to know them, I have so many more questions about myself than when I first got here.  Who am I a product of?  How did I come to be the person I am?  What did I have to go through to become the person I am today?  What did I believe about family and what do I believe now?

These are questions that run deep.  They caused me to dig into my very soul and question, "What is the truth?" And "Why do I believe these truths?"

I have a very large extended family.  My father has five brothers and a sister who live in the states.  My mother has twelve brothers and sisters; most of whom live in Germany.  ( I have been able to visit with six of them in the last 2 weeks.)  So, to ask, "who am I a product of" goes back MUCH further than my parents!  And this is one of the reasons I am here in Germany.  To find out where my mother came from, so I can get a better idea to where I came from. 

I am a product of my family, not just my mom and dad - that´s the truth.  And, like every family, there are good and bad qualities, aren´t there?  But the truth is, also, that we all have a choice to make. We can either sweep the bad under the carpet and hope and pray that the generations to follow will not trip over the pile of dirt under that rug (that somehow has gotten to be a hill of dirt!) OR we can deal with that dirt and sweep it out the door where it will not cause the pain and hurt for generations to come.  So what is my truth? My family has a lot of pain and hurt due to the piles of dirt that have been swept under the rug.  And today I am paying the consequences for someone else´s schmutz! 

But I cannot place blame.  What I need to do is help those with the dirt to deal with it and "fix" it so that they can heal, I can heal and I can help undo the hurt and pain I may have caused the next generation.  And how, pray tell, am I to do this?  By lovingly recording it in a book.  Yes, I am writing a book.  I am going to "expose" many areas of dirt that MUST be dealt with.  I am not doing this to cause hurt and pain in the lives of those who came before me.  I am not doing this to embarrass anyone who came before me.  Want to know why?  I have the same problems!  And in causing pain and embarrassment would only serve to do this to myself! So, my truth is that I have problems that stem back a few generations.

I have come to be the person I am today because I believed the truths of those who came before me by saying that all was well.  But the truth that they saw was not truth at all, but a lie.  I believe that I can turn this around.  I believe I can because there are a few in the family who have seen the truth and have chosen to believe this and have started dealing with the grime in their lives.  What a wonderful thing to see!  No, grime is not pretty, but the trust these individuals have in the ONE Who can make clean is a beautiful sight!  And I have recently witnessed how the Lord wants to do the same in my life.

More to follow another time.