Yesterday I flew across North America for a meeting in Boston. While waiting in the airport I watched a young couple care for their newborn girl. Dad was trying to be as helpful as possible, cuddling the baby and relieving mom from the duty, but mom was a bit apprehensive about how dad was faring. Dad looked like the type who was more comfortable scoring a soccer goal or making a business deal than sitting in a rocking chair. How to handle the spit-up was amusing to watch, and coordinating a bottle, bouncy feet, and distractions all around proved a challenge. But his intentions were sincere and the outcome was a happy baby. There was a definite bonding action going on in that family.

The scene warmed my heart and reminded me of how precious my own family was to me. I would not trade anything for my wife and two children. The love we’ve grown to know over the years, the caring and the sharing, and deep affection, the company, and our home are the dearest spot on earth for me. There is nothing material that can even compare to having the opportunity to deal with the “spit-up” moments of raising the kids—someone to love and be loved by. I would not trade those moments for anything.

This is not to say everyone has to have a spouse and kids to have family. Not true.

Everyone has different families they are members of. Not everyone gets married and has children, and that is perfectly fine, because family is not a certain grouping of individuals. It’s people who love each other.

I know teachers who make their students their family. They live for their kids in the classroom. They love those children as their own, and the love they give and receive makes life worth living. I know business people who make their customers their family, loving their clients as if they were brothers and sisters, and receiving love in return. Family may be a mom, a neighbor, an associate, a foster child. Family does not have a material definition. It’s a spiritual experience—it’s loving and caring in action.

But whatever family you are a member of, really enjoy the moment. We get so busy, oftentimes, running around doing things, earning a wage, cleaning the house and keeping up with the Jones that we forget the most important things in life. The most important things are the spiritual, the love we feel, express, and give. It all comes from God and God gives it to us in infinite measure. But we need to make space in our life to let it flow and be experienced.

Love your family, whoever and whatever form it takes. Value the moments of caring and sharing life affords. Let their worth sink in. Don’t let life fly by until someday you sit down and wonder where the years went and what you have to show for them.

Life is Love, and family is a place to experience that Love to a greater degree, whatever family you happen to be a member of.

Enjoy your “spit-up” moments, and keep a good sense of humor. The bumps and disturbances along the way are no big deal compared to the greater love that brought you to that moment to begin with.