Call up your brothers, sisters & cousins and thank them for being who they are.
We are continuing the celebration of the family by recognizing where Brothers, Sisters, and Cousins fit into the family. Every part of a family is an important piece of the total picture of happiness and prosperity that God wants for us.
Sometimes things don’t go swimmingly well and usually it stems from sibling rivalries, sibling jealousies, and sibling covetousness of each other. In these cases the parents and other elders of the family have to smooth things out. If they don’t these rumblings turn into deep divides between Brothers & Sisters that drive them away from each other when they become adults.
So that’s why families need to bring in God’s teachings to make sure siblings get along. Brothers & Sisters living in harmony helps to make their adult life that much more happy and prosperous.
I, Publius Jr, am the youngest in my family. I was blessed with 2 brothers and 2 sisters and 4 cousins on my mom’s side and 5 cousins on my dad’s side of the family. Those numbers are before their spouses and their children.
Growing up I learned from the lessons, trials and errors learned of my sisters and brothers. I also got a lot of my brothers’ hand-me-downs and as they were older than me my fashion was a few years behind the times.
All of my cousins are older than me. It isn’t until you get to the first cousins once removed (my cousins’ kids) that I become older than them. On my mom’s side of the family only one 1st cousin once removed is younger–Kyle of Sacramento. I wasn’t too close to any of my cousins because they are all older than me. My oldest first cousin Marianne is 34 years older and Susan the youngest is 8 years older than me. So it’s really hard to relate to them. They grew up at a different time and some were married before I got to Junior High School.
My brothers, sisters, and cousins have different and interesting professions. Cousin Lawrence Karnow is a weather forecaster for a San Francisco Bay Area TV station (KRON4), a brother of mine is a Master Electrician, Cousin Bruce is a cook, a brother-in-law is a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Singer, Cousin Ellen is a retired US Air Force Veteran who played for the US Air Force Band, Cousin Lynn is a retired Mechanical Engineer who helps raise Black Labradors with Cousin Marianne. All of them give an insight into these and other professions.
Brothers, Sisters and Cousins still are interested in you because you have a shared history together. You’ve learned about life together years apart or in the backseat of a Chevy Suburban going to California on a summer vacation. They sent letters and cookies to you when you were at summer camp or when you were in the military (thanks Mary). They beat up a bully at school for you (thanks Dave), or taught you to bowl at the college union (thanks Ann), or taught you to play pool in the basement of the Masonic lodge before you learned to read (thanks Rob). They did a victory dance when the Packers won the Super Bowl (Thanks Cousin Dan) or sent some great Christmas cards over the years (thanks Cousins Susan, Bruce, Barton, Ellen, Ruth, Marianne, Barbara, and Debbie).
If you’re unsure of where you stand with your Brothers, Sisters, and Cousins, call them up this Sunday or some time during the week to get back on better terms with them. Go on, they’ll be glad you were thinking of them.