The pressures of today’s society have put a large strain on the old form of family and home solidarity. The requirements made on parents for providing for the family today often lead to a loose family relationship. Working mothers and moonlighting fathers do not have much time to spend with the children in family activities.
All of the activities that teenagers engage in today produce the same result. This has reduced the place of importance the home and family once had. It has also eroded the authority and influence of the home. There is, therefore, a great need to examine the place of the family in modern society. A greater effort is going to have to be made in order to have a tight-knit family unit, which a generation ago, came as a matter of course.
It must be recognized, first of all, that the family is God’s basic institution for the ordering of society. This is a presupposition of the entire Bible. This is a principle that has not changed. God laid the foundation of the home when He made woman and gave her to Adam at the beginning (Gensis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.) The most basic responsibilities of training which lead to a stable society are committed to the home (Deuteronomy 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.) Without a strong sense of family responsibility, it seems that the social order will become chaotic, and will eventually crumble.
The most basic of human duties and obligations are to be taught in the home. The first years of life are critical in the development of one’s personality. Such is the nature of things that parents are the only individuals with the capacity to teach children in their first years. If they do not do it, then it is not done. A child must feel the security of home and the warmth of parent’s love, or he must develop a basic insecurity which he is likely to carry all of his days. It seems that nay system of communal training, as an alternative to family relationships, must fail. There is simply no substitute for wholesome home and family relationships.
There are certain aspects of this grand principle that are being eroded by the stresses of today’s society. This is due to a number of factors. Many parents spend so much time making a living that there is none left for family activities. Young people are engaged in so many activities in school or otherwise that their time is well taken. The fact that so little time is spent together necessarily erodes the authority of the family. Besides this, it seems fashionable today for young people to question all authority. To obey and respect one’s parents seems old fashioned and outdated to many young people. Any authority at all seems repressive and burdensome to a large segment of today’s youth. A third factor is that many parents have simply abdicated their responsibility. Any of them make no effort to instill moral standards or godly precepts into their children. Thus, it is easy merely to allow things to drift in family relationships.
What is needed is a renewed vision of the absolutely essential role of home and family in the maintenance of an orderly society, not to speak of the maintenance of godliness and high moral standards. The home is the prime place where effective discipline practiced will pay the biggest dividend in self-discipline and self-control in young people. And these are essential if one is to reach any worthwhile and lofty objective in life.
This will require a conscious effort on the part of both parents and young people. Some other activities may have to be sacrificed, but time spent in family activities will be amply rewarded. It is suggested that periods of family discussion and family worship are activities worthy of serious consideration. The principles of godliness may be thus imparted. This will go far also in keeping open channels of communication between young people and their parents. Remember that the Bible lays down two grand principles with regard to parents and children. First, “train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). This is to parents. Second, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:1, 2). This is to young people.