The Family That Awaits You

Get this.  On average, adoptive parents are more invested in their children than birth parents.

More. Not less.

It’s true.

One study, published in the American Sociological Review, found that adoptive couples invested more time in activities like reading, eating and talking with their kids. They also sunk more time into things like homework, school functions, and sharing cultural activities.

(We can guess at the why, right? Adoptive families often reallly, realllly, reallllly want kids and are uniquely ready to appreciate them.)

Reading about this phenomena reminds me, though, that humans have the incredible ability to devote ourselves to others–even relative strangers–as if they were family.

If we choose to.

I think that’s a premise we find in various places throughout the Bible. A stranger can be a neighbor (the Good Samaritan), a friend can be closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24) and whoever does the will of the father can be family (Matthew 12:50).

So how about it? Who can you adopt into your personal brotherhood today?

(Need a little inspiration to kick your adoptive urges into gear? Check out this inspiring adoption story about a photographer who becomes family to one of his subjects.)