What is wrong with the family today? (A question for parents)
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself this question? Many parents are very concerned about the state of family life they see around them. Children are often disobedient to parents, rebellious and unthankful! We say: “They don’t have respect. I don’t know why!” But the family is not going wrong only in the children ...
Look at our young people, our teenage daughters and sons. Today, many of us who are parents are more than concerned about the behaviour of our young people, about the standards and morals they have, and also about where their lives are heading. The fact that we are concerned shows this: We have the heart to find out - if indeed the answer can be found out - the answer to the whole worrying business.
Should I tell my daughter that sex before marriage is definitely wrong, wrong except under special circumstances - or what? Can I trust my children in days when we hear of vandalism, glue-sniffing, drug-taking, under-age drinking and generally worrying behaviour? Clearly, we as parents need a FIRM FOUNDATION OF ADVICE that will help us to advise our teenage children and to direct their lives in ways that we know are good for them now and in the future.
But even if we leave our children and young people to one side - what about us as parents? How do we measure up these days? Are we responsible for so many of the troubles we see around us?
Men - are we the husbands we should be? Do we lead our families the way we should? Are we the heads of the home on whom our wives can rely and in whom our children and young people find strength? Or are we not sure what we are - or even what we are supposed to be?
Wives - how do you shape up? Are you the mothers you should be - kind yet firm, able to guide your daughters with confidence and help them at troublesome periods of their lives? And how are you towards your husband? Do you have respect for him and work with him to build your home?
We as parents have a lot to answer for in days when less than one in two marriages are “making it”; when our children listen to us rowing continually and even witness us fighting violently.
The family today needs help. We have to understand that - if not, then we are surely closing our eyes to the source of the very problem. A nation is no more than the sum total of the families that make it up. Every person born has parents and relatives and therefore the family is the smallest unit of life in Britain. If only the family could improve, we need not worry for the nation. But is it possible that the family, YOUR FAMILY, and mine can improve, can understand where it is going and how it can be directed in a good, loving and satisfying way?
The good news is YES! The answer to a satisfying family life lies in the place that we look last of all, the answer lies in God.
Jesus Christ said this: “I have come to give you life”, real life - life like you have never known it before. It is in Him that we as parents find the solution to every problem we see in our families, in Him we find all that we should be as husbands, wives, as fathers and mothers. In Him we learn to build our families not just for our life here and now but for evermore.
Jesus Christ has a lot of good things to say about family life - only through Him is it really possible to build something that lasts.
Why not consider inviting Jesus into your family life? You have nothing to lose - and EVERYTHING TO GAIN!
(Ed Nichols - Pastor)
