Our Battle To Save Family Values

The rat race is on and families are the big losers. In a society that is running at unhealthy speed, our families, which are our most precious blessing, are being left behind. There is a thief in the house. Like the rest of America, the Christian family is facing great challenges. How do we live in a environment that is constantly seeking immediate gratification, idolatry of money, and unhealthy views of wealth.

We are seeing the tragic effects in our American families and unless something changes soon, we will find many tired and worn out families and many that wont make it and fall apart. At the center of this battle is one of the most poorly managed resources we have, the use of our time. Making time for the family, which is vital to build strong communities as well as Godly family traditions, is becoming more challenging. Many times it seems impossible, if you follow the expectations of a consumerist society; a society that expects you to demonstrate your love by the amount of gifts you put under the Christmas tree.

The problem is not a lack of time, the real problem is the lack of prioritization. Unless you take control of your time, someone or something will. If you do not take control of your time, the tyrant "Colonel Urgent" will control your schedules for you. The results at the end is not pretty; feelings of unfulfilment, frustration, pain, guilt to name a few. See Colonel Urgent does not care about values, principles, boundaries, balance, humility, and priorities. All he cares is about having more and now. He does not care about what will the consequences will be later, how many casualties we have in the end as long as the reward is immediate gratification.

Make it a conscious effort this year to fight the temptation of immediate gratification. Teach your children the importance of delaying gratification and developing discipline which will build in them character. Without discipline, we all have the tendency to accept short-term rewards regardless of the consequences. It is evident now that this short-sighted behavior does not work; actually it is destructive. In this recent recession we are living, bankers AND investors engaged in business transactions that generated short-term gains for a few, which in turn created tremendous losses for them and the rest of the country. Unfortunately their short-sighted view and their desire for short-term gratification not only affected them, in the process many innocent families were destroyed in the name of greed.

This holiday celebrate the importance of families, family life and community. Remember that values such as honor, courage, generosity and truthfulness begins at home. This year make it intentional to develop a plan to preserve values, priorities and unity of your family. You may be one of the few in your neighborhood, don't worry. Remember that your are doing this for a greater cause and not to please your neighbors. Your investment in your family will be greatly blessed.