family ties

why do you have to "love" your family?

i mean, the Lord commands us to love all people, of course. so i get that part. but why do you have to love love your family?

if i told you that there were people in my immediate family that i strongly desired to separate myself from, you'd probably think i was horrible. you'd probably think i was hard-hearted and wrong. because family is family and you have to keep family together...right?

why?

explain that to me. other than sharing chromosomal similarities, what makes it so necessary to having loving relationships with your family? is it ever ok to feel stronger love ties to those you're aren't related to, than you do to your own family?

but what is it about sharing DNA that makes you have to have a relationship? in most other cases, you can love someone from a distance, forgive them, pray for them, whatev. but for family, people make you feel like you HAVE to be close to them no matter what, or there's something wrong with you.

sisters are supposed to be close. brothers are supposed to be close. mothers and sons and fathers and daughters. and if you're not, it's wrong.

why?

why don't i feel the same way? why don't i feel the same loyalty to bloodties that so many other people do?

maybe it's because perfect strangers have been better to me than those who actually look like me.

but even still, if i cut my family off, i'd be wrong...right?