The black sheep

Black sheep: One person in a family who is not accepted for who they are. They can't do anything right, and what they choose to do, doesn't go with the flow of the normal sheep.

Well, my brother was sick last night. So mom babied him senseless, she got him his every wish and said, "I know I like being babied when I'm sick, I usually don't get that." (A common reply.) Then I said, "except when I called Jeff for Coca-cola last time your were sick, because you had a craving for it." "Yes," she said, "that was good, I really appreciated that." It took her a good 4 weeks before I was able to drag out of her that she admits to enjoying or appreciating something. Its like it offends her pride. Maybe thats why I always felt like I was failing her. Maybe I really wasn't the one failing after all.

I always thought of myself as the black sheep. My mom, my sister, and my brother are all extroverts. They all can make friends fast and are very bold in everything they do. My dad was like that as well. So where do I come from? I think I was so jealous of their personality types, that I hated them for it. They never seemed to understand, and so I shut myself down even more. So no one could possibly understand me. Nor did I care that they did.

Then came along my husband, an extrovert as well, although he has a few introvert tendencies. Analytical, could think of plans all the way through and knew how to execute them. I don't even know what made me like him. All my friends told me they hated him. My mother wasn't too fond of him, and my brother just thought he was better than my last boyfriend, which didn't take much to accomplish that. Another black sheep. Just my type.

So we dated for 3 years before we got married. We knew within the first 6 months that we were getting married. The weird part is I didn't know how much of a black sheep my husband was with his family until maybe a year ago. And thats when the real changes began. We stepped out of our family traditions and took riskier jobs than the usual blue collar. We started going to church, a protestant church, which Josh's Catholic parents are still not too thrilled about. In fact, a friend of mine and a Catholic as well, is also friends with Josh's mom. I was talking to her about our new church, she had heard through the Catholic grapevine (ie my mother-in-law) and she had the guts to say, "I know, I'm sorry." I'm sorry? I understand for Catholics it's like instant death to leave "true faith" because if you aren't Catholic, you are not in the kingdom of God. I'm not sorry. God has blessed me more because I stepped out in faith, and took my husband to a church which he is learning more from than he ever learned in all the masses he went to. We step out in faith to take those jobs, so Josh could learn and accept a better job which he is now more prepared for. We have moved in and out of parents houses and apartments, trying to secure a job, which now we are blessed with, because we believed that God would see us through it all. And He has. Am I sorry? In no way, shape or form.

So what does this tie into being a black sheep? Even black sheep can accomplish many things. God loves the black sheep, because they are already broken, He mends them, uses them and achieves great things with them. Now we have a family of all black sheep. I know my girls will have greatness blessed upon them, because God has already granted them to do so many great things.