I hurt today...very badly.  I was with my mom and she was telling me about her recent trip to our old hometown Abilene, TX.  She always goes and visits our family there and no matter what she tries to get in contact with them and share hesed with them...which is a whole 'nother post.  But today, she was telling me about how so many of my cousins, mainly the female ones, have just stopped caring about themselves or their family.  My aunt, Becca, has many daughters who have either gotten deep into drugs or deep into drunkenness.  As she told me about each one, I felt my heart ache.  One has had 8 children and doesn't have any with her at all.  The fathers have taken some, she has given up some for adoption, and one she just gave to a couple at the hospital she had just met because she didn't want it.  Another cousin of mine went to my aunts house, her grandmother, and tried to stay there one night.  She was strung out and my aunt told her she couldn't stay.  She began to yell and curse at my aunt while holding a crying baby in her hands, and trying to guilt her into letting her stay.  Another one of my cousins goes back and forth between letting my aunt (her mom) see her kids (my aunt's grandkids) and using them against her. 

I don't tell these stories to gossip, but I tell them because we all have people in our lives that are like this.  I just want to tell my cousins that God likes them...He really likes them. I don't say that to sound silly or sarcastic.  It is truth...He likes them.  It hurts me to know that there are those in my extended family who have not seen or heard the Gospel...or they have seen a distorted picture of it.  

As I was sitting there with my mom, I began to tear up because of the hurt I was feeling...how much more does God desire them to desire Him.  They have no idea that God likes them.