Welcome to the Family- You'd better buckle-up...

As I began to map a history of the Clayton/Ventura (Ballesteros, Antonucci)  and it is filled with sacrifice, pain, suffering, addiction, acceptance, and deliverance.  Jesus is using this book and a few years of life on the water to show me again how BIG He is!  

I really appreciated when Scazerro talks about New birth into spiritual family and the reference to Mark 3:33-35 "Then he looked at those seated in the circle around him and said, Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother. " How He consideres us worthy and valuable enough to call us brother/family!

Also loved how he acknowledged the "Importance of Process" 

" God does not give us amnesia or do emergency emotional/spiritual reconstructive surgery... We all come into the family of Jesus with broken bones, wounds and legs shot up in the war of life. God's intention is to heal our brokenness and patch up our wounds.  He allows the scars and weakness to remain.  We are then to go out and heal others as wounded healers.  Discipleship, then, must include honest reflection on the positive and negative impact of our family of origin, as well as other major influences.  This is hard work.  Following Jesus is a process that takes time. (Scazzero P. 102-103 Emphasis added)

 So much freedom!  I'm not going to be "fixed" overnight, those wounds and scars are there as a reminder of how BIG He is, and how much I need to cling to Him on this wild ride. God is so much bigger than my families genogram.  You can believe that I'm seat belted in on this journey.  It's not a quick trip to the store, but more like a drive across country, on icy roads, in the middle of the night with little sleep, a five hour energy, and a whole lot of road ahead...Ooh yeah! And we are towing a boat.  The Journey!