What is "family?"
It was often a pretty complicated social construct in the Old Testament, where husbands conceived children with nursemaids, stepbrothers lived as enemies, and young women married based on reasons other than love.
The New Testament added a new wrinkle--Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, presented as the son of God? A pretty radical concept when you think about it.
Today's family constructs are even more varied with an increase of divorce, international adoptions and parenting by same-sex couples. All of these circumstances, along with other family varieties, have affected our personal and legal definitions of what it means to be a family.
But one universal truth has endured--whether we are bound by blood, by circumstance, or by spirit, we should all strive to be "family" to one another.
In this study for youth, participants will examine their own family constructs and, hopefully, come to appreciate that a family, however it is defined, is at its core a group that loves, nurtures, forgives, supports, and cares for one another--sometimes whether they like it or not!