Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1978

The Christian Family
Barton K. Strong

Three years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week at Camp Shalom as a counsellor for the grade seven and eight children. It proved to be a very rewarding experience in many different ways. The summer camp is meant to be a place where the children can learn about God in a relaxed, outdoor atmosphere and at the same time do a little growing up away from their parents. As I found out it can also be a place where parents can do a little growing up away from their children. As parents though, we don't like to refer to ourselves as "growing up", so let's call it a meaningful learning experience instead.

When Camp Shalom is full of children and God's Word is openly proclaimed and discussed you can actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit working with you. It fills you with exuberance, excitement, joy, peace and reverence all at the same time. The camp often seems like the Garden of Eden, a little corner of the earth which the Lord protects a keeps safe, an oasis of God's people.

While there, I was in the habit of getting up very early in the morning, long before anyone else showed signs of stirring (even before the children, if you can believe that). I would take a slow walk around the perimeter of the camp and perhaps stop a few times to sit. For me it was a time to reflect, a time to do some clear, undisturbed thinking. I was never alone.

It was during one of these walks that I came to realize how important a responsibility God has given us in guiding our children towards Him. We cannot push them towards God for fear of pushing them too hard, yet we cannot let them flounder on their own at a time when they can be easily be misled by others. We must guide them. We must show the way by our own actions and words. We must develop a strong family circle with God in the centre.

Our family relationship with God should resemble a wagon wheel. The members of our i family are situated around the outside rim of the wheel. God is the hub in the centre and our individual relationships with God are the spokes. The family is molded together as one, around the rim. God has separate ties with each member, yet his overall strength spread over the number of spokes, keeps us on the rim from collapsing. If we take away the spokes, the rim caves in. If we remove parts of the rim we get a very rough ride. If we remove the hub from our wheel it becomes pointless trying to carry the wagon. We won't go anywhere. God must be the hub and the strength supporting our family. If He is not, as is evident in many non-Christian homes today, the family structure collapses.

A recent gathering of Judges and Magistrates from around the world has concluded that juvenile delinquency is on the upswing. The crimes committed by juveniles are becoming more violent and the juveniles committing those crimes are getting younger and younger each year. The Judges attribute this rise in violent crime to two major causes; the influence of the media (television, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc.) and a general breakdown in the family structure. The incidents of divorce, separation, childbearing, wife beating and excessive cruelty within the family have also risen sharply in the last decade. Why?

A symposium of world Judges has recognized the fact that the well-being of the family is one of the keys to eliminate violent crime and to keep juveniles from becoming delinquent. If they had carried that premise one step further they would have had to ask the question, "What causes the family structure to break down?" and the obvious answer, although it may not have been so obvious to them is, "The absence of God in the family circle. "A wheel without a hub cannot support the wagon".

You'll remember that the disciples of Jesus were turning the children away from Jesus because they thought the children would be wasting his time. He had more important things to attend to. Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." He knew how important it was to reach and claim these children to God's service before they could be impressed by others and be turned away from God.

Modern man has learned that lesson very well. In Cambodia, Vietnam, Panama, China, Korea and who knows how many other countries, children are taught who and how to hate at a very early age. Some countries are reputed to incorporate hate indoctrination into their formal education system. These children and young adults can be fed any quantity of false information and false ideas. In short, their adult behaviour can be pre-determined almost at will. Their indoctrination program can be changed to suit the current ideology and political aspirations of the governing body. If you were told throughout your whole life that there is no God, that Jesus Christ did not exist, that Christians are fakes and their Bible is a book of lies, how could you doubt it. How could you possibly believe otherwise?

That is why it is so important to reach out to children with the love of Jesus and guide them towards the Lord at a very early age. Camp Shalom is a place which upholds that very ideal. I've walked and talked with children in the camp. I've listened to their secrets, discussed their concepts and ideas and hopefully helped them towards a better understanding of their religion and their Christian family, but what of the children who live in the darkness? What of the children who are attending our public schools and have never heard the Lord's Prayer, who have never been to Sunday School, who have never heard their father pray over the breakfast table?

Our present western society leans heavily towards the rights of the individual. Non-smokers have rights. Smokers have rights. Christians have rights. Moslems have rights. Atheists have rights. Everyone seems to have certain rights and privileges pertaining to his or her lifestyle. Do we have the moral right then, as Christians, to try and guide the child of a non-Christian. family towards the saving. grace of Christ? Civil Law interferes at this point and says, "No, you cannot if the parents do not wish it." As Christians though, we have an obligation to a higher authority. Stalemate?

God's answer is to obey civil laws but place the laws of God first and foremost. This means that if a child's parents say, "No, we do not want him reciting the Lord's Prayer at school," and civil law upholds their request, then the school system must abandon the mandatory reciting of the Lord's Prayer. As Christians we cannot disobey that law, but we can fight it if we think it is wrong. We can try and change it. We can do everything within our power and within civil law to promote the Word of God. We are supposed to be a Christian country. Let's challenge that statement. Laws are changed when public opinion favours a change, at least that is the way it is presumed to work. So how do we influence public opinion? We promote and we rebuild the concept of the Christian family. This is where it all begins and ends. To coin and re-word an old phrase, "As the Christian family goes, so goes the country."

What is a Christian family? What distinguishes a Christian family from an average nonChristian family? One of the major differences, as pointed out through the analogy of the wagon wheel, is that the Christian family s a much stronger, a much more cohesive unit. Not only do we draw on God's strength to lift our wagon load; we can also draw on the strength of other Christian families. Our wagon, you see, has many more wheels.

The non-Christian family survives only through the determination of its individual members, and without God that determination is weak. When a crisis occurs the family is no longer a family but a group of individuals each determined to have his or her own way. There is no meaningful communication. There is no understanding between family members. For all intents and purposes they each lead separate lives; even the children. We are well aware of the results of this kind of relationship.

This is not to say that Christian families do not have problems. Of course we do, but when they occur, with God's help they can be resolved.

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