Who is in your family?

I have been participating in a bible study at church. It's a Beth Moore study and it is entitled "Stepping Up". It's a study on a section of Psalms known as the Psalms of Assent. I've been very excited to be a part of it because it's the first time in years that I have been able to participate in a study. As a homeschooling mom with a husband who is gone most of the time overseas, getting to a bible study on a weekly basis has been difficult. But now that my son is old enough to look after his little sister's (my kids are 13, 9 and 7), I have felt as though I can get into a study.

Last week, our study led us to Psalm 127 -

The Blessing of the Lord
A Solomonic song of ascents.
1 Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.

2 In vain you get up early and stay up late, eating food earned by hard work; certainly He gives sleep to the one He loves.[1] Or work; He gives such things to His loved ones while they sleep

3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, children, a reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth.

5 Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. Such men will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.

In verse 1, God is talking about buiding a house, a home... a family. And, unless God is watching over us, we watch over our own houses, homes and families in vain.

God has a very broad concept as to who our family is... the bible study continues to look at this in Matthew 12: 46-50:

46 He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly His mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to Him.

47 Someone told Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You.”[16]

48 But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”

49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother.”

See what it's getting at there? Whoever does the will of My Father - whoever is part of our Christian community - those are our family members.

This is what makes my relationship with my Compassion kids so special. They are part of my family. And this is the house... this is the home... and this is the family that God has brought together.

In the course of our bible study at home, we were to write as to who we had in our "family" that was not part of our nuclear, biological family - did we have a mother-like figure that mentored us or did we have other children that we were "mothering" or mentoring. It was so exciting to me that during our discussion at Bible Study I mentioned my sponsored children when we were discussing this section. Two other people mentioned that when they had went over this section, they had left that part blank because they could think of NO ONE that they were mentoring. Lucky for them, I had my Compassion sponsorship information with me!

Can you think of someone in your life that you are mentoring? Is that space in your life blank too? God has big plans for his family and for yours... please consider sponsoring a child!