Families are the indispensable support to a nation. Healthy families secure a healthy nation, but when a nation’s families break down so does the infrastructure of the nation.
I’ve worked as a paralegal in the field of family law for almost two decades. I know the ramifications of failing families all too well. Divorce has a huge economic effect upon the family. Two parents who were working together to maintain one home, now meagerly maintain two. Children’s futures become compromised. Grades slip. Behavioral problems increase. Debt mounts. Houses are foreclosed upon. Bankruptcies are sought. Legal bills pile up.
The consequences affect the family for generations and mount exponentially throughout the nation. Fatherless children. Motherless children. Latchkey kids. Economic hardship. More reliance on the State for economic aid. Compromised inheritances.
Divorce impacts the care one can give to his or her aging parents, or, at times, the care they will one day require. How many parents, stepparents, and estranged parents can a broken family support? How much can be saved for the future when the needs of the present are pressing down on the family?
Some family units never entered the protection of marriage. When they split, there is no equitable distribution of assets and no spousal support. Some have never had a family structure. The economic struggle is heart wrenching. The broken homes suffer for lack of a biblical family structure.
Today we compound this national crisis with the entrance of same-sex marriage. Broken homes have soared to a new level as children are brought into these unorthodox relationships. It is too soon to calculate the statistics of what this new break from biblical tradition will create in our nation.
The challenges a nation faces in the home span the gamut from poor parenting, poverty, fatherlessness, divorce, serial divorce, adultery, fornication, children born outside of marriage, same-sex marriages, unhealthy married life, and more.
Even the nations school system suffers as they cannot educate children properly without the aid of a stable home and parental involvement.
Discipleship becomes paramount for the family mountain. Discipling the family will be a labor that comes from the other mountains and into the family. The worldview of what makes a family is primarily taught through the mountains of education, church, family (we teach it in the home intentionally and by example), and through arts and entertainment. The family mountain is also a large contributor to discipleship in all areas of life. When the family is healthy it operates to disciple a nation of people in truth. When it is not healthy it contributes to discipling a nation in lies harmful to the nation.
No matter what kind of family we currently have, we can move closer to a more biblical idea of family. Past mistakes do not prevent us from moving toward greater alignment with truth. There is no perfect family, but there is a healthy standard and the closer we come to it the more we are doing our part to make a great nation.