When Family Weighs You Down

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Family — it’s a gift, a challenge, and sometimes a complicated mix of both. In today’s devotional, Aaron D’Anthony Brown reflects on the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37:3-4, unpacking how even the most dysfunctional family situations can be met with grace, wisdom, and faith.

If you’ve ever wrestled with family tension, painful words, or unresolved conflict, this episode offers perspective, encouragement, and biblical wisdom to help you navigate those tough relationships.

✨ Key Takeaways

💡 God values the family unit — even when it’s messy
💡 Joseph’s story reminds us that betrayal and brokenness don’t have to be the end of the story
💡 Prayer keeps us anchored when family drama threatens to overwhelm us
💡 Open, honest communication is a brave and essential step toward healing
💡 True reconciliation begins with listening well and extending forgiveness
💡 No matter how unreliable people may be, God remains steadfast, loving, and good

🌿 Intersecting Faith & Life

Who in your family might you need to have an honest conversation with?
Are there hurts you’ve held onto that it’s time to forgive?
How does Joseph’s story encourage you to keep trusting God, even in tough family dynamics?
Is there someone you’ve overlooked that God might be prompting you to reconcile with today?

📖 Further Reading

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Full Transcript Below:

When Family Weighs You Down

By Aaron D’Anthony Brown
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.” (Genesis 37:3-4, CSB)

“We’re supposed to get along,” Dad used to say a lot to my sisters and me growing up. That was his reminder to prioritize our family bond over any reason for strife. Whenever I asked “Why?” with childish curiosity, my father’s answer was simple: “We’re family.”

Since those youthful days, at times I’ve still wondered why we should remain committed to family despite all odds. I’ve wondered while observing the ways family members turn on each other, gossip, and all sorts of drama they cause.

Today, however, the answer to my question is much clearer. We should value our households because God esteems the family unit. One great example that makes the case is the story of Joseph and his brothers.

In Genesis 37, Scripture introduces us to Joseph as a boy who receives prophetic dreams. After sharing these visions with his brothers, his own flesh and blood turns on him. First, they consider killing him before settling on just selling him into slavery. Not only did Joseph’s siblings commit the initial atrocity, but as later passages reveal, they also kept up the ruse for years to avoid any consequences. They only came clean when a famine hit the land, and circumstances forced them to come to terms with their sin. By then, Joseph was a young man whom Pharoah placed in charge of all of Egypt. The story concludes with reconciliation, forgiveness, and a bond between brothers that is surprisingly rekindled.

Like Joseph, we don’t get to pick our families, and thus, we often don’t get to choose what kind of problems they drag us into. While prophecies may not be the reason family weighs you down, other circumstances are to blame. Some trivial, some quite significant. If we are to learn from Joseph, how exactly do we stay afloat when family weighs us down?

Intersecting Faith & Life:

There are several takeaways from the story of Joseph that we can implement into our own familial relations.

Talk to God

Hearing prayer as a response to your circumstances probably sounds like a cliché, but the cliché rings true. Joseph never lost his relationship with God throughout the hardships. His faith kept him in line with God’s will and proved that what the Lord showed him through dreams came to fruition. That’s a reminder to us to trust God. Whatever the situation, God promises His presence and peace if we seek Him. God knows that family can be difficult, but His power is greater than any difficulty.

Communicate

As you seek God for direction, consider also talking to your family. Sometimes people don’t realize their behavior or words are negatively impacting you. Avoiding confrontation may feel comfortable in the moment, but this does nothing but exacerbate the issue. Instead, talk to your parents, child, sibling, whoever, and find a solution. The beauty of communication is that even if you don’t come up with something, at the very least, you understand one another better.

Listen Well

When you reach out to family to share what’s troubling you, don’t see communication simply as an opportunity to voice your own concerns. Relationships function when two people work together. Therefore, take the time to not just give feedback but also receive some as well. More than likely, you are not as blameless in the situation as you may have thought.

Seek Forgiveness

As experience teaches, families can say or do things that leave indelible marks on us. Trauma that we end up sorting out through counseling and prayer. Even if this is your situation, know that healing is possible. When we forgive those who have hurt us, we stop giving them permission to live in our minds. We also stop ourselves from dwelling on negative emotions. God forgives those who forgive, so be sure you do your part in moving forward as best you can.

Trust God

Family relations can be absolutely beautiful or downright disparaging. We don’t always know what we’re going to get each day, especially if we come from tumultuous families. Yet, even when relatives prove unreliable, God shows Himself to be consistent. He proves Himself to be good, reliable, and always loving. Like Joseph, trust Him to get you through your ordeal, relying on your connection to Him and other relationships that He sends you.

Further Reading:

Exodus 20:12
Psalm 27:10
Ephesians 6:4
1 Timothy 5:8
Matthew 5:38-39
Matthew 10:35-37
Matthew 18:15-17

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