A love that endures

“What is family?”
We pondered and ask ourselves what family meant for us. We mentioned words that relate to “family” and we agreed that the word itself has a lot of meaning. We concluded that family means God’s gift, belongingness, happiness, blessing, comfort, love, faith, trust, peace, purpose, guidance, strength, unity, forgiveness, home, church, marriage, providence, sacrifice, relationship, communication, time, treasure, community, work, effort, distance, responsibility, blood related, sweat, rivalry, hurts, under progress, third party, mistress, abortion, emotional baggage, selfishness, separation, brokenness, defense mechanism, pain, misunderstanding and the list goes on. We realized that family can be defined simply as love.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
-1 Corinthians 13:7

How wonderful and powerful true and genuine love can be? For it is by love that God sent his Son to save the world. It is by love that he has called us and even blessed us with a family we can call our own. It is also by love from our parents that we are here enjoying life by living on earth. We don’t choose our parents and neither do they choose their children. The family is a manifestation of God’s great plan and love for mankind.

A family is not referred to as blood related only. Any person can be a part of a family no matter what their circumstances may be. Belonging to a community, to a workplace, to the Church, to friends or even housemates is already considered as a family because we are building a relationship with them. Being migrant workers in a foreign country, I believe God provided a second family for us to share and enjoy our life even if our biological family is away from us.

The fruit of a family is a blessing of a relationship and a love that is shared between them. It is the love that binds and unites them like a rope tied by connecting each member together. The love continues to grow stronger and blazes like fire burning with passion and desire that nothing can stop it. The relationship built flows deeply more than blood, sweat and water as time passes by. We all have good and bad sides and when there is love and acceptance, the heart is freed of any guilt or bad emotions and the desire to change to become better is there.

The family nowadays is being attacked and we should always remember that no matter how hard and difficult the situations may be, as long as there is love, relationship and a commitment to hold on to then definitely it will withstand all the storms that life may bring. The vibrant colors symbolize the ups and downs of family life. It shows that family will always be the reason for us to love and they will always be our home when there’s no place that we can run to for comfort. Love endures and therefore our family should endure because they are God’s gift to us. Our family and our love to them is always worth fighting and enduring for!

This entry is dedicated to all our family and friends who are gifts from God and we praise the Lord for they are our treasures! They are a God's masterpiece in our life. "Thank you and We love you!"

Dubai Chapter 3B3: Thank you Girl power!
Sarah Lauren Lim, Karla Mae Gabion, Vaneflor Olesco, Leah Joy Lingat, Madonna Cabalona and also thank you for the support from members of Chapter 3B3