Family is where your story begins. The sign was on the mantle at the cottage I stayed at a couple of weeks ago.
I have a similar saying posted in my kitchen area. Instead of family, it says Home is where your story begins.
Either way, the meaning is the same. Our homes, our families, that’s where it all begins. The potential that exists in a family or home at the very start is staggering. No pressure there for young married or young parents, right?
I think we all feel that pressure. I hear it all the time from moms. I said it enough as a young mom myself. “I’m afraid I’m going to wreck my kids.” It’s got to be up there in the top five things we fear most as parents.
The thing is we don’t need to be afraid. We aren’t going to be perfect with our kids or our spouses. Ever. We’ll do some things right and others, we are going to mess up. Because of grace, there still is hope. We are given second chances. It’s not second best either.
Sometimes we think that, right? That a second try is second best? It’s not. Sometimes it’s better.
Thankfully that potential is always there. Waiting to be tapped. Even if it gets messed up. As Brene Brown says, “It often takes just a single brave person to change the trajectory of a family or of any system, for that matter.” (from her book, Rising Strong. Yes do read it!!!)
Do we want to be that single brave person? Even if our own stories were horrific, or disappointing? We can still be the one to say, “Enough.” Write a new ending. For ourselves. For our children. TURN things around.
A TURN ABOUT can change everything and every outcome. I have lived it. I have been witness to it. I’m sure we all have at some point.
Even in the beginning, after Adam and Eve sinned and it looked like things couldn’t get more messed up, God TURNED things around for us. Did He have to? No, he could have just started all over again. He had that ability. But He chose to redeem rather than start over.
He still does today. For us. Redeem rather than start over. He takes those things that we think are irreversible and He TURNS them AROUND. He TURNS them UPSIDE DOWN. Or RIGHT SIDE UP. You might be the person He’s going to do it through. It may take a journey to get there but it’s worth it. The journey brings about the change needed and the end result is a story to be told. Stories beginning one way and ending in a way we never imagined or hoped for.
Adam and Eve were the first family. They were also the first messed up family. But that was not their ending. It doesn’t have to be ours either.
I posted that saying to remind myself that I wanted to change how my boys’ stories were going to play out. That I had a say in how their stories would unfold. That the potential is always there, waiting to be let loose. That grace does bring second chances. That love and courage can TURN our stories around.