Pride & Family

I've been thinking alot about family lately, and what it means to be proud of your family. Growing up, the only thing that my mother and father could ever agree on was that I was supposed to be proud of my Grandma Zeola. Having this repeated to you over the years starts to work on you, especially when you never even got to meet her. For alot of my life I have had this huge weight on me, that I was supposed to be just like her, and I hadn't even met her. I'm writing this because in a recent conversation with another family member, I was told I was to "be proud to be a Clemens." Some of this is in response to what I said to that family member, but some of this is what I've been thinking about family...especially my own. In James 4:6, we are told that, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." In seeing how I want my family raised, I think that our relationships with God come before "family pride." Being right with God and doing His will should always take priority. After all, were we not God's children first? It makes me think of the Israelites as they are trekking through to the Promised Land, they were more concerned with the things of the earth than that of what God had in store for them. Aren't we told that "love of the world is hatred towards God?"
I'm not saying being proud of your family is a bad thing, but when does something like that become an idol? Perhaps when the unexpected death of a beloved woman happened twenty-two years ago, that her children are still too prideful to seek help? Perhaps when certain family members are still so distraught over it, that they miss out on relationships with their own children...and they don't even realize it? Aren't we told that God won't give us more than we can handle? That He will be our solid ground so that we may stand up underneath it until he opens another door?
Family is a wonderful thing instituted by God, but if not used in the right context we won't see the fruit of what God has for us.

Dear Lord,
Teach me to be like you. Teach me what you really meant for family and all the beautiful things to come from that. Not pride, not idols and not hurt. But joy love and compassion. Lord guide us all. Amen.