In the Bible the family was established soon. Adam needed a helpmeet, so God created woman, and out of this union came children, thus completing the family unit. Down through the centuries it has survived as the most stable, enduring, and universal of cultural forms. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, the family is defined as “a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption constituting a single household, interacting with each other in their respective social positions of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and sister, who share, create, and maintain a common culture.” The family consists, therefore, of parents and children— parents who teach their children who, in turn, grow up to be responsible, Christian people.
We may ask ourselves, “Are our families any different from the world’s? Don’t children always argue and fight? And don’t we have a generation gap?” If you feel the answer to the last two questions are “Yes,” then we are in a sad state.
But then we must think of the differences. Take this past Christmas, for example. We woke up to go to church and attend Christmas service and the Sunday School program afterward. We thought of the Christ who descended from heaven and God’s majesty to be born in a lowly manger and take on our human nature and sinful body because He loved us. At the time we were thinking this, the worldly people were probably thinking about that party tonight or those nice presents under the Christmas tree. What a difference!
There are other differences also. We don’t have to worry about our parents being unfaithful, spending all their wages sitting in a bar, or even divorce. We wouldn’t know what it would be like to come home with no parents around. We, as Christian young people, have real security in our families and homes. We sometimes become frustrated because we feel that we can’t do “anything”; but when we think about the young people of the world who try to find security in their drinking and pot parties, we see that we, as Christian young people, are richly blessed and must thank God for our Christian homes.