UGA Wesley

I think change is the greatest challenge of going ‘back.’ It comes in a variety of forms: people change, environments change. Maybe the greatest is that we’ve changed. The distance of a few months or a few years makes us very different sorts of people than we were before. Our personal culture has shifted, our worldview changed, our relational style altered.
A few things are usually helpful when we find ourselves in the conflicts of returning to old spaces. First, just understanding the situation for what it is—that parents may still view you as a child, that relationships change over time, etc.—goes along way. For our part, even if it isn’t reciprocated, giving people grace to adjust at their own pace, treat us as they did before, misunderstand our ‘newness’ is a must (and it’s the way of Jesus—which is always the preferable route). You have to give yourself permission to grow and be different, to fall back into old patterns and struggle to maintain what has matured. And we have to give others permission to be a slow adjusters.
Above all, we must be governed by love. If we have all sorts of gifts and growth and new passion, but don’t have love, we’re missing the point entirely. When we're motivated by love, we rarely do wrong by someone or act in ways that we would later regret. “Put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Colossians 3).

Challenge: Go out of your way to consider the ways that your family members might be helped along in understanding and accepting you. Go out of your way to love and accept them.
If this is not particularly poignant for you, pray for those in the community who are having a hard time in this area.

I Corinthians 13, Matthew 5:10-16, James 1:12, Colossians 3