What Makes A Great Family?

What makes a good family? I have discovered that there is no one structure or one prototypical design to a good family.

I myself like big families. I have five brothers and sisters as does my wife. I have created my own big family even when society is moving away from the big family.

My family as well as my wife's family are incredible examples of two good families yet each one has its own dynamic and goes about things in different ways.

Let me start with my wife's family. The vast majority live within approximately a 30 mile radius. This includes sisters, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins and grandparents.

We see them all often. There is rarely a weekend when there is not an event planned. Birthdays are big, graduations are big and weddings are big. When there is nothing going on there probably will be a grill firing up somewhere for people who have nothing better to do.

We spend a great deal of time with each other. This means we see drama, we see skirmishes but we see much laughter and fun. It is rarely if ever boring. I love it. It is highly entertaining. My wife at times has said that she thinks I like her family more than she does. She is kidding of course, but I really do thoroughly enjoy her family. Many times I have said that I feel so comfortable with them because it is not too often that I run into a group of people crazier than me.

Now lets look at my side of the family. We go to school, we move away. that is what we do. There is a great amount of distance between the majority of us. It makes get-togethers where everyone is able to come difficult. Yet when we do there is very little fighting. We do not see each other enough and we value the time that we have together. When one of us is in crisis, we may not be able to come directly to each others aid but we have the phone and we use it. We have e-mail and we use it.

Since Sunday I have been able to appreciate both of my families. My wife's family helped us out with the kids and with the house and enabled my wife and I to attend to one of my family who desperately needed it.

There may not be a prototype for the perfect family but there are certain values that I think a good family must possess.

Those values include compassion, kindness, and unconditional love. One must be willing to give their time, prayer, and thoughts to others. The members of that family must know when it is time to forget any past problems and come to the aid of a member who needs it. The concept of "shirt off your back" must not be a novel concept to the members of a "good" family.

Even though my wife's family and my own operate in different ways they both share these core values.

This all adds up to one thing. I am very, very blessed. 

Dan Bimrose is the creator of coffeeandprozac.com a website devoted to making people think, laugh or cry. Daily Opinions, Editorials, and Stories He suggests dropping bread crumbs so that you can find your way back on a daily basis.