We Are Family {Get Up Everybody and Sing}

Leaving church one Sunday, a friend of mine said, “See ya later. Love you, girl!”

I didn’t think much about it until we got in the car and my 5-year-old asked me why she said she loved me.

I answered quickly and said, “Well, we are family so she loves me like family.” I explained to them that a church is like a family and that we go to church together and that makes her part of our church family.

As you can imagine, a flurry of questions has followed.

First, you should know that our immediate family is a functionally dysfunctional group of peeps. We have my kids, his kids, two adopted kids, birth mothers, birth fathers, birth grannies, half brothers, whole brothers, no relation but we call them brothers all thrown in the mix. Our FAMILY looks a little different than most, and then when the little boys call their brothers’ wives their “sisters,” we get all the looks (Note to self – teach them the proper relation, sister-in-law, sooner than later).

So now he asks every person we see if they are family – literally, everyone.

He asked me, “If we are students of Clinton Massie Elementary School, are we part of the Clinton Massie family?”

Yes, we are.

He asked me, “If we are part of a basketball team, are we part of the family?”

Yes, we are.

Then we shifted to certain people.

He asked me if Jett (our babysitter’s son) is part of our family. I told him his babysitter loves him very much.

Yes, we are. (Now affectionately called babysitter family.)

Just in case you were wondering, the nice lady at Dollar General is not part of our family but we now have discussed that we need to treat everyone with love and kindness, so now she is part of our Dollar General family.

I’ve been humbled, to say the least, by my 5-year-old and his view from his tiny little stature.

I’ve been thinking of this all day. Who is your family? How many families are you part of? Take a moment to ponder with me. I think you will find you are giving love in a family dose to many.

And now I’m dancing.

Channel back to 1979, get those hips moving… Sister Sledge said it best:

We are family

I got all my sisters with me

We are family

Get up everybody and sing

We are family

I got all my sisters with me

We are family

Get up everybody and sing

Everyone can see we’re together

As we walk on by (and)

And we fly just like birds of a feather

I won’t tell no lie (all)

All of the people around us, they say, yeah, yeah

Can they be that close

Just let me state for the record

We’re giving love in a family dose

We are family