Your Family; Your Primary Duty: Take Care Of Them
Everyone born has their root from a particular family. Of course, no human exists alone but through a family. If family has given you a sense of belonging, then you have a duty to take care of them. I once read a portion of the Holy Book that expresses the fact that anyone that cannot take care of their family is a bad person. It gets so disheartening when you see someone being mindful of other things, like work, career, etc, without taking care of the very thing that matters so much - family. It is to your own interest that you take care of your family, because they will be the one to take care of you when you need it the most.
The things you are putting in place of your family, some of them may not stand by you in the moments of need. I am not saying that you should leave the pursuit of other things, but you have to make out time to take care of your family and then balance things up. Take your work for example; while working, you have to also create out time for family. There is a reason why you are given a leave from work, you can use it to stay close to your family, bond more with them, create a sense of belonging for them, and make them feel your presence. Trust me, all these will matter at a much later time in the future.
Someone may think that this is only about married couples, but it is not, everyone is part of a family, and you should take care of them. Some days ago, Mothering Sunday was celebrated, how well was your presence felt in the life of your mother (or the person representing the figure) on that day? There is nothing that you do for family that is too much, nor is it wasted. As a matter of fact, your acts of goodness to your family is like a seed you are sowing for your own self, which you will reap from tomorrow. You will not expect the family you do not take care of to take care of you. If they will take care of you, then learn to take care of them.
One of my friends made a very insightful statement some weeks back. He said that "you should focus more on what cannot be replaced, and not what is easily dispensable." For the people that place their work first above all other things, if you know how easily you can be replaced there, you will be surprised. There was a place where I worked briefly many years ago, but the lesson I learnt from there about taking care of family has been in my mind. One of the supervisors of the company was so much submerged in the work. Well, there was nothing wrong with one being committed to his work, but it became so much that he did not have anytime for his family.
There were times that he would sleep over at the company and even when he was supposed to be with his family, he would go for other activities at the expense of his family. This was very obvious that his wife, which also belonged to the same district meeting with me, would always complain that his husband was not there for him and all of that. Even when his wife had a major surgery, he was not there for her; just breezing in and out. I left the company when I got another work. So after many years, I ran into the woman and she told me some very shocking things. After many years of his husband committing his soul to the company, he became ill and needed urgent medical assistance. But sadly, not one of the company's executives came to his rescue.
When he stayed away for work for close to a year, the company replaced him with someone else and he was left alone. It was still the same family that he did not take care of that became his last hope of survival. Imagine if they reciprocated what he did to them, would he have survived? Ironically, the person that was used to replace him in his office did it better with lesser time because he figured out easy ways to go about it without sacrificing his family for work and vice versa.
No matter where you are now, what you are doing, and where you are going to, always have in mind that family is everything that you have, so do not sacrifice them for anything. Even your best friends may not stand by you when you need them the most, but a good family will always have your back. It is what you make with your family that will determine the level of support that they will give to you when you need it.
Thanks for reading
