These scriptures center on family life and security.What we can give to each other that provides for security is far more than money.Often it’s giving ourselves!The family of Abraham is a good place to look for thoughts on family life. MONDAY Scripture:Genesis 12:1-2 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, you will be a blessing.” In one sense, family life is always an adventure.And it is always filled with promise.We live between where we have been and where we are going.And God travels with us along the way.Someone described the parenting task as giving our children roots and wings.It is also the task of the faith family, to provide a place to be and a place from which to soar.May we share the blessings of God with the families in which we live? TUESDAY Scripture:Genesis 18:13-14 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, `Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." Here is real insight into family life.Have we not all at some point laughed at the promises and despaired of any hope?For Sarah, it seemed impossible that she would have a child, and for some in our time it seems that they have the impossible children.For some, it is a particular burden or turn of events, or a relationship is for the moment dry.The haunting challenge from our Lord is the same as Sarah’s – Is anything too hard for the Lord?Faith resounds with NO! WEDNESDAY Scripture:Genesis 22:12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." This is at the heart of the great moment of faith when Abraham is called upon to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to the Lord.At the last minute the Lord saves the boy.But it begs another question – whether we withhold our children from the Lord.In fact, the temptation is everywhere every day for us all – and it comes in the form of enticements and interests that can cause us to put God on a back burner.God saves, but it helps if we create relationships with God first. THURSDAY Scripture:Genesis 24:66-67 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Why do we live in community?Is not one of the greatest securities of all to experience love, to give and receive comfort?Isaac was incomplete and doomed to loneliness without Rebekah.As John Donne put it so many years ago: “No man is an island,…” We belong to each other.God made us that way.We need to be there for each other, and we need to seek others out.Whether it is our personal families or the faith family, we belong to each other and find both love and comfort in community. FRIDAY Scripture: Genesis 37:17b-20 So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." Ah, sibling rivalry.It is part of life.But God works through the deepest hate. That is our hope. SATURDAY Scripture:Genesis 50:19-21 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. And at the end we will know how life turns out.That was when Joseph and his brothers discovered the true purpose in their lives.God will reveal it all.