While reading the bible in a study centered on family, I am realizing,the breakdown of the family is the single most poignant factor in the breakdown of society. One can trace almost all society’s problems back to the breakdown of the family- which is God’s plan for man and woman. God ordained family. It is his wish that a man and woman remain pure until marriage and then produce children within that context. The reasons for this are many, but for one, the children have the best chance of succeeding in the context of an intact family-that is with both mother and father in the home. We can see this example in the life of Jesus, himself. God did not need to necessarily send his son Jesus in the form of human to be born of a woman and live in a family, but He (God) did just that. Why? I think one important reason was to show us a model for his best, that is an intact family. Jesus was God in the flesh, thus he was perfect in every way. He did not need to subject himself to the rule of human parents like Mary and Joseph, after all he was God. However, Jesus did humble himself to the nurture and admonition of his earthly parents (as well as his Heavenly Father). This was done as a model for us. But we as a race-the human race- have pretty much abandoned God’s model and plan for the family. And with many sorrowful consequences.
What are those consequences? I will name a few: orphaned children,childabuse,divorce,teenpregnancy, homosexuality,homelessness,poverty, spousal abuse,and abortion. And the list goes on…With the divorce rate at around 50% millions of children are being raised in single parent families. Often times the single mother is forced to raise her kids alone. About 40% of children in the US go to bed each night in a home where no father is present. The term father has gone from being a relational term to the context of just a biological term. This trend of family disintegration is heart-breaking to God and its ultimate end is destruction for the human family. So what is the solution?
I think ultimately,only God can set things right. A quote by pastor Mike McIntosh of Grace Church in Federal Way,Washington illustrates some defining observations on the importance of the nature and function of families: “So often we hear that the world is too intense, too violent,too ugly,and that is what is destroying our homes. It is not the world that is destroying our homes. It is the weakness of our homes that is destroying the world. The family of God has suffered as much a the secular has. The divorce rate within the church is the same as without. And judgment must begin with the house of God, as the bible states in 1Peter 4:17. The enemy of our souls, satan,has launched an all out attack on family since the beginning. His strategies to divide and conquer will succeed unless we, who call ourselves Christians, begin the reconciliation. Reconciliation in its simplest definition is the restoring of cordial relations. That is what we desperately need. We as people first need to seek to restore our individual relationship(s) with God, through Jesus Christ the Savior. From this starting point there is hope for outflow to other realtionships. Fathers and children, husbands and wives, whole families, communities, ethnic groups. But if we don’t understand God’s purpose and plan for family we cannot accomplish anything.
Maybe you think this sounds simplistic or idealistic or religious. But I know from personal experience the hole that is left from a broken family. I know what it is like to be raised by a struggling single mom. I know how it is to have a “weekend dad”. I don’t feel sorry for myself about it, but I want better for my children. And I happen to have faith in an all powerful all mighty God who can change things as we submit ourselves to Him. He can restore all that has been stolen from us. And He (Jesus) has come to give us a more abundant life (John 10:10) and a hope and a future.
This hope can be yours if you will come to know Him, that is Jesus, as your Savior and Lord.
Tags: abortion, abuse, children, family, family issues, father, homosexuality, Jesus, mother, orphan, reconciliation, restoration, society
