Oftentimes people will say a family includes a mother, father, and children all living together under one roof. Some might say a family can be anything that involves love. Webster’s dictionary defines family as : “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household or all the descendants of a common ancestor.”
Families are the foundation of society. Family, it is the world that we are nurtured and given the tools to go out into the world, capable and healthy—or we aren’t. While families have the greatest potential for raising healthy individuals, they can also wound their members in places that will never heal.
When families break down and fail to provide the healthy nurturing we need, the effects impact not only our own lives, but also our communities and the world we live in. In other words, we reap the benefits of a healthy family or we all pay for unhealthy families. If we ignore the suffering, we suffer the consequences, including: alienation and fear become the norm as our neighborhoods turn into places of violence and crime where we no longer feel safe.
Family may not always be connected biologically, but in a community, like a church, we can feel a part of a great big family.
We have to be diligent about our families, our children, our community, because if not we will conceivably lose the next generation from being a productive generation for the church and the community.
What does the Bible say about family?
“And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.”
Deuteronomy 11:9 KJV
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 KJV
The Psalmist’s declaration that “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3). It emphasizes it in the apostle’s solemn warning that “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). For all these reasons, we do not hesitate to affirm that there is a strong and inescapable biblical basis for “focusing on the family.”
As we train are children, as parents we make the decisions at an early age what is important for them. Soccer mom and hockey dads spend their time deciding what is important for the child.
“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”
Mark 10:13-15 KJV
We need to let our children come and learn about Jesus. He alone created the institution of the family and the world is trying to tear it apart.
I believe that Jesus can heal and restore our families.
Pastor Hatter
