In my family, everyone has strong opinions.  (Imagine that.)  With Thanksgiving coming up, strong opinions would be okay if everyone had the same opinions.  But they don't.  And of course, everyone wants to get their opinion out there.

We have 35 people coming to Becky's on Thursday.  We have people who think we shouldn't take the Syrian refugees in--that we should help see that they are settled in Lebanon, Iran, Kuwait, or some other Asian country.  And we have people in our family that not only think we should admit them immediately, but take them into our own homes.  We have falling off the left-wing liberals, and right wing anti-government interventionists.  I bet you have some of both of those in your family, too.

That is what you get when you raise your children to think for themselves and obey the dictates of the Bible.  You get the "Love your neighbor as yourself," group.  And the "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord," group.  You gotta love them both.  God does.

I got so tickled at Becky today.  She said, "Well, Mom, some of our family can't stay but a couple of hours because they have other obligations.  They'll have just enough time to eat, get into a political fight, get mad and go home."  I said, "Sounds like a plan."

One good thing, they all have been raised to love God and love his people.  So they will go home still loving each other.  I hope, I really hope that they will keep their opinions to themselves and simply catch each other up on what has been going on in their lives.  They are coming from Chicago, Orlando, Dallas, and who knows where else.  We don't get together on any other holiday.

"I have an idea," Becky said.  "I'll just tell everyone that wants to argue about politics--and get mad--to go eat in the kitchen, and the rest of us will eat in the dining room.  What do you think about that idea?"  By then, Becky was laughing along with me.

We have a wonderful, loving, funny, opinionated family.  Thank God for every one of them.