Today is National Visit Your Relatives Day.

What’s your first reaction to the news that you will be spending the weekend with your relatives? Do you immediately want to jump in the car and say, “Let’s go!”? Or are you desperately thinking of any reason as to why you just can’t make it?

Maybe you are fortunate to have “relatively” (pardon the pun!) normal aunts, uncles, and grandparents. But if you are like most people, you probably have one or two relatives that are challenging to be with. You know the type: the aunt who insists on sending you the Christmas sweater with Santa on it and wonders why you’re not wearing it. Or the uncle who tells the same jokes over and over and over. Or the great-aunt who can’t help but pinch your check and say, “My how you have grown!”

The good news is that families—and that includes all your relatives—are one of God’s greatest resources! From the very beginning, God made us to live in families (Genesis 1:27, 28). God commanded that our families help teach us about him (Deuteronomy 4:10). We worship with our families (1 Corinthians 16:19) and celebrate with them (Deuteronomy 14:26). Families are where we go for acceptance, encouragement, guidance, and advice. When everyone else disappears, our families are there for us.

So when you think about it, our families are a wonderful gift from God. Celebrate your family—and the relatives, too—by giving them the honor and respect they deserve.

Everyone will live quietly in their own homes in peace and prosperity, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord Almighty has promised this! (Micah 4:4).

To Do

Write letters to (or email) a couple of your relatives. Ask them to share a story about their family when they were your age.

Also on this day . . .

Today is Armed Forces Day.

1642—The Canadian city of Montreal was founded.

1986—David Goch finished swimming 55,682 miles in a 25-yard pool.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.