"So much of what is bound up in us is our love of family that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty." poet, Haniel Long

Those words so resonate a vital truth in me, one that has been with me for probably longer than my memory could prove and surely must be divinely inspired. After all, God created the first family, taught us about Love, gave us an almost cruel sense of Eternity, then placed us in families, giving us the groundwork for life and leaving us hungry for more beyond it.
Brilliant, really.
Well played.
But wait.
We live in a fallen world in which Evil flourishes. What if, God forbid, our families lack the understanding of the gift that the Father gave to us and they squander it and make a mockery of it, what if they allow cruelty and unkind words to cross its threshhold so that the Refuge becomes a Battle Field leaving it undiscernable and nowhere near the standard of what God intended it to be.
What then?
Look at the words of the poem.
If there is little Love bound up, then there is little measure of Stability and little sense of Loyalty, with that comes so many maladies that plague the human condition; Anger, Fear, Loss, Grief, Confusion, Hate...
We must be good to our families, whatever form they take, for there is so much at stake and we must not put the idea of Family in a box, for they come in many forms. Mine came in the traditional sense; loving mom, dad, siblings, until loving mom was taken away and cruel replacement entered center-stage, creating the Conflict which ensnared me and nearly swallowed me, until I heard the words of a good friend who simply told me that if I could not find Love at home, find it somewhere else.
I found Love in my friends, therefore, they became my Family and I was not left longing for stability and loyalty, those things followed me all through my formative years and well into the dark years of puberty.
It was enough.
It got me through and eventually I grew up, built a bridge and got over it.
I survived with the knowledge that someday I would do it right.
I would Love my family and teach my children about Love, Honor, Courage, Faith, Kindness and Eternity, I would fight for its Honor and Integrity, and its Vitality and perhaps I would inspire a few along the way to follow a similiar path???
And I wouldn't take credit for it either, for the Glory goes to the Father. After all, it was His idea.
The unspoken message hidden in the the words of the poem if I may extrapolate, is in its implied promise: if we heeds those divinely inspired words, then we become who we are meant to be.