Chapter 13: The Family (Freshman 15 Snippet)

Here’s a snippet from Chapter 13: The Family:

One of my favorite movies when I was a child was the Christmas classic, Home Alone.

If you remember the plot line, Culkin’s character, “Kevin,” had a pretty awful family.  He had a brother Buzz who wanted to feed him to his tarantula.  He had to bunk with his cousin Fuller who was prone to bed-wetting and was downing some serious Pepsi.  Worst of all, his cheapskate Uncle Frank was known for spouting off towards Kevin one of the most memorable movie lines of all time: “Look what you did, you little jerk!”

Let’s face it: Kevin did not have the best family in the world, so when they dramatically disappeared one morning before Christmas, Kevin thought he had been raptured into parent-less bliss.  His wish had become true.  His annoying family had been whisked away from his home.

However, Kevin wasn’t the best family member in the whole world either.  In fact, Kevin had a pretty big mouth and a very selfish attitude for someone so small in stature.  While his family was quite annoying, he fit in with them quite well.

For many college students, the hardest place to be a Christian is when they are around their family.  Since this group has seen you at your worst, they have an uncanny knack at being able to provoke you to anger faster than anyone else.  You have an ability to spot their faults from a mile away.  Tempers flare, words fly, and an awful lot of regret is unfortunately birthed in someone’s very own home.

Even if your home isn’t as blatantly dysfunctional as Kevin’s, your family has its issues.  They probably majored in issues.

But your family cannot change if you stay the same.

Leading up to the time around when I get to release Freshman 15, I wanted to provide you a snippet every day for 15 days at 15:00 in the afternoon.