BIG D

The struggle continues and several other "shoes have dropped"!  Jacob's family has become so unhealthily complicated.  The struggle does not begin with Jacob and his family and it will not end with his family. The psychological term to describe Jacob's family is dysfunctional.  Medically, "dysfunction (Webster) is an abnormal, impaired, or incomplete functioning, as of a body organ or part."  However today, the term is used most often to describe human relationships.  

The more I read of Jacob and his family, I surmise that the real struggle is within Jacob.  Even though he has had encounters with God...like us, who have experienced salvation, Jacob struggles with flesh responses from pride, fear, anger, selfishness, and lack of integrity.  He has too often modeled this to his family, and they are infected with the "virus".  Dyfunctional families began with the fall of Adam and Eve, their two sons, and have been very evident in readings of Noah and his family, Abraham, Sarah, and their sons, Issac, Rebekah and their sons, Jacob and Rachel and their sons, and it continues among us today and will continue as long as this earth exists. Obviously, perfection will not and cannot be attained in this life, however, as Christ followers, we can commit to some self-corrections which can alleviate some of the unhealthy emotions and inappropriate modeling.  It is well past time to stop the game of Let's Pretend and How Does My Family Look Outwardly? WE ARE ALL FLAWED, FINITE, AND FRAIL!  Am I willing to submit to Holy Spirit conviction and confess my sin...no blame, no shame, no condemnation, and no accusation?

I was curious to see what some symptoms of a dysfunctional family look like, I went to a website, keepbelieving.com and found these symptoms:
1.  "Estrangement:  family members who avoid other family members.
2.  Anger: repressed or expressed.
3.  Lack of trust:  faulty patterns of communication.
4.  Deception:  inability to speak truth to other family members.
5.  Unhealthy secrecy:  refusal to face truth."  

Tragically, the BIG D is descriptive of individuals in Jacob's family, and of us today, and is further revealed in most interpersonal encounters in home, school, church, workplace, traffic, and the list continues.  I must decide my role personally in adding healthy or unhealthy communication in my family. What am I willing to allow the Spirit of God to change within me?  I don't know if Jacob desired it or not, but I want to finish well to God's glory. The price of my dysfunction was paid for on Calvary.  God's Word, 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;  the old has gone, the new has come." Because I have read ahead, God did not withdraw HIS blessing from Jacob, however Jacob died having rarely been called by his new name, Israel and probably did not experience the "More" blessings that God had purposed for him.  Only I can decide how to finish this life!  Forever learning.  In process.  #IHAVETHREESONS.