The Family

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. ( Proverbs 22:6)
The basic problem with this nation is, in fact, that most Americans have not trained up a child in the way they should go. Because of this this nation is more and more corrupt everyday. The former president of this country, Richard Nixon, said once that this country was made up of the family unit. He was and is absolutely right! So what happen?
We have just about, if not more, kids born into this world without a father, without a family unit, without core values that once made this country great. So what are those core values? Well here are a few. We had families that had diner together, said grace over the meal, and discussed their problems, but now there is McDonalds and no family meals. We had a father and mother that would say no and mean it. We had parents that would not just send us to church, but they would go with us. What happen? There was a Bible in every home and it was read. Now we have a generation of kids that does not even know one name of a book in the Bible, and we blame the kids. Where does their parents fit into all this. They will have to answer to the Lord, one day, for not training their children up in the way they should go.
In his book, A Spiritual Clinic, J. Oswald Sanders wrote about the lasting family legacies of two families from New York.
"Two families from the state of New York were studied very carefully. One was the Max Jukes family and the other was the Jonathan Edwards family. The thing that they discovered in this study is remarkable and it only backs up the scripture that is the theme for this article.
Max Jukes was an unbelieving man and he married a woman of like character who lacked principles as was talked about early on in this article. And among the known descendants, over 1,200 were studied. Three hundred and ten became professional vagrants and vagabonds; 440 physically destroyed their lives by immoral lifestyles; 130 were sent to the penitentiary for an average of thirteen years each, 7 of them for murder. There were over 100 who became alcoholics; 60 became established thieves; 190 public prostitutes. Of the 20 who learned a trade, 10 of them learned the trade in a state prison. It cost the state about $1,500,000 and they made no contribution whatever to society.
In about the same era there was the family of Jonathan Edwards. He was a man who served God, and married a women who served God. The study showed the following about Jonathan Edward's descendants: Three hundred became clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors; over 100 became college professors; over 100 became attorneys; 30 of them judges; 60 of them became physicians; over 60 became authors of good classics; 14 became presidents of universities. There were numerous giants in American industry that emerged from this family. Three became United States congressmen and one became the vice president of the United States."
Parents should never forget the impact the life decisions that they make will effect your marriage, and on your children. We must remember the decisions that we make in this life are building a legacy that will last for generations!