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Friday, May 9, 2008

We need a family renaissance


The entire month of May will be celebrated as family month.
I want to talk a little about the entire family unit and dedicate the weekend to the appreciation of our mothers.

As I sat at home yesterday half sick but not well enough to do anything, I thought about the monster call crime and the various atrocities committed by one human being to another.

I wondered also whether there is a direct relationship between the degree of dysfunctional families and the level of crime in our society.

In my call for a redefinition of the role of fathers and mothers, I am also calling for the overhauling of the entire family. There needs to be newly established family traditions and values. Things that the family can hold close to their hearts and which preserves the institution of family in the way it was designed to be.
Men, women and children are all at risk of dying young and living sub standard lives if the ills of families are not addressed.

Happy couples make happy homes and happy homes have happy children. Happy children make happy families, then happy communities, happy schools, happy churches and so on and so forth. The fact is it all begins somewhere and end up at another place but for sure it will return to where it started.

It is a fundamental principle of life and the bible tells us, we reap what we have sewn.
As I prepare myself to become a member of the specially privilege group called, parents. I am reminded that this is a position of tremendous responsibility.
Children require a great deal of supervision and attention. That is just the way it is.

I would support moves to hold parents more responsible for their child’s ills. So if my child was guilty of a crime then my entire family would require rehabilitation, counseling or therapy. Clarissa Graves, the British poet says, “What a man sows, that shall he and his relations reap”

I am not for one minute purporting an eye for an eye. I am not even suggesting it, because unforgiveness is one of the deadly venoms destroying our families and the society.

Let us teach parenting, it is too important a role to leave to chance. The framing of a young, delicate mind is a BIG job and the rewards are far beyond dollar value.

The Chinese proverbs put it beautifully; “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people”