For so long I kept wondering what the purpose of family was.  Is it to create a close knit network, build communities, pass along history and secrets through generations or to not make us feel alone?  There are sooooo many reasons why mankind as well as creatures of all kinds have family.  My interpretation is that we have family to help teach us things about ourselves that eventually push us to reach our individual infinite potential.

I believe that God/the universe has devised a plan for each of us to eventually reach our potential.  Now, if you believe in reincarnation, the idea is that we are brought back each life to hopefully accomplish tasks and goals that we were unable to achieve in our past lives.  Knowing this about reincarnation one could apply this very same principle to our family dynamic.  We are provided with family members who are created in our likeness.  Our family teaches us many lessons in life through their individual experiences.  We learn how similar or how different we are and how to handle one another and life situations.  It’s as if we get multiple copies of ourselves to look at while we live our lives in this lifetime.  Family teaches us to manage all these lessons from different perspectives, but, ultimately we have to devise a conclusion for ourselves.

What I mean is this.  Our parents are half of who we are.  We are half of our father and half of our mother.  The traits we develop are passed along from them, both physical and non-physical.  The life situations they go through alter our own lives as well, as we watch them deal with and overcome the lessons.  We are given many chances in life to do the right thing for us because of what we witness family go through.  Sometimes we will notice our parents making unnecessary sacrifices that we, ouselves, would never make.  We learn not be like them and repeat those mistakes to help propel us further toward our goals.  Other times we notice our parents providing love, support, and guidance that we wish to mimick and apply to those other people who we wish to share our lives with, that is not family.  We witness and experience many lessons by having family.

Take a moment to look at your own family and try to understand how they are here to help you.  Look at their individual flaws, strenths and experiences.  Then make a judgement about what you were meant to learn from them.  Maybe, your father is supposed to teach you to be more self-sacrificing, while your mother is supposed to teach you balance by being more “selfish” or accommodating only to herself and her family.  Maybe, your brother is supposed to teach you what type of man you should be with, someone who offers love and support and pushes you up instead of pulling you back.  Maybe your sister is supposed to teach you to be fearless while she breaks boundaries and becomes a trail blazer.  Look at your life and your family dynamic to understand yourself more.  Find out how you are similar and what sets you apart.  Take the lessons as a means to understand how to reach your full potential and use their life experiences to project yourself into infinite potential.

Time to reflect:

Did you ever wonder why we have families?  I think it’s to help us reach our potential in a fair way.  We cannot be given all the answers in life, but we can be guided.  The guidance comes in the form of family.  As we witness them go through things, we are able to apply those lessons and minimize the hurt or maximize the good results.  Family exists to serve a special purpose.  We are here to learn from one another and to use one another to eventually reach our full potential.  Look at your own family and notice the great things as well as the poor things.  See how they fit in your own life and what you can take away from them and their lessons.  If we are blessed to have them, family is God’s way of giving us a chance to reach the unknown with love and support.

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” ~ Alex Haley