“The Family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children…..Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”
It almost seems stupid to have to ask this question at all, right? Everyone knows that families are important. We either know it from our own familial experiences, or from a desire to have the types of family relationships that we observe in those around us. Why wouldn’t one want to be part of a happy, healthy, loving family? Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, yes, but….. it turns out that the basis for the critical importance of the family is much less recognized, understood, valued, and taught than it should be. Even those who have strong traditional family values probably do not fully understand or comprehend all of the reasons that healthy, stable, loving family units are so invaluable.
To complicate matters significantly, we have a world population with very diverse experience, knowledge, values, and belief systems, relative to their own personal family relationships. For example, a child who grows up in an orphanage may develop a value system that places the importance of an intact family unit above all else. Whereas, a child raised by a single parent may either A) Not see the need for two parents in the home, or B) Understand more fully what might have been missing as a result of the absence of one parent – no matter how loving or caring their custodial parent is. Further, a child who witnessed their parents in an abusive marriage may never want to marry or have children of their own. These are just several of countless possible examples, variations of the family unit that exist in societies today. What’s my point, you ask? My point in referencing these scenarios is to illustrate that no matter what our own personal experience was or is, all people need to understand why we should do all in our power to seek, to build, and to maintain complete, traditional family units. And, yes, this means men and women who are married, and who are committed to both each other and their children.
In addition to mounds of research-backed evidence recognizing the value of traditional families, prominent figures throughout generations have acknowledged the family unit as the very foundation of societies and civilizations. Let’s face it – If we really value the wisdom of some of the most well-respected, intelligent, educated, esteemed, and even inspired individuals who have existed since time began, why don’t we, too, protect and sing the praises of the intact family unit? If a nation is, in fact, only as strong as its families, what does that say about the state of families today in many countries, including the United States? All we have to do is look around, watch the news, glance at social media (or observe the behavior and discourse of our representatives in Washington D.C., if we’re really being honest with ourselves), to see that something must be fundamentally wrong in our societies and civilizations today. This isn’t to say that it’s all bad. There is still much good in the world, and even in many families. However, the statistics and the evidence do not lie; Many of the sorrows, challenges, and ills of the world correspond closely with an increasing decline in morality and the value placed on traditional family relationships.
So, to get off of that soapbox and sum things up for you… Following is a list of what some prominent individuals have said about the importance of the family:
1. Aristotle taught that marriage [and, therefore, family] were the foundation of the republic.
2. Plato and Aristotle supported marital laws ensuring the bonds between parents and children.
3. St. John Chrysostem believed that the “love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together…”
4. “The decline in family integrity is associated with decline in civic participation and community life” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 280).
5. “The family is the unit of society in which relationships, patterns of behavior, and values are first, and most firmly, inculcated and acquired” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 280).
6. “Families are…the most significant means of transmission of core values from one generation to the next” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 280).
7. “Societies and communities with weak and unstable marriages and families have weak and unstable (typically corrupt and dysfunctional) economic, social, and political relations as well” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 281).
8. Pope John Paul II – “As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 281).
9. President Gordon B. Hinkley – “A nation will rise no higher than the strength of its homes. If you want to reform a nation, you begin with its families” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 281).
10. Elder Neal A. Maxwell – “As parenting declines, the need for policing increases. There will always be a shortage of police if there is a shortage of effective parents. Likewise, there will not be enough prisons if there are not enough good homes” (Successful Marriages and Families p. 281).
FAMILY STRONG 