The Human Family Endures

The human family endures, but it’s battered and threadbare.

Can we bolster this centuries-old institution and how?

What is the gold standard for the word family? Husband, wife, and biological children.

There are also blended families where a couple brings children from previous relationships into a new grouping.

So-called alternative combinations of “families” are late entry hybrids with no stable record, history or prediction about their future. We cannot judge members of such unions but neither can we guarantee the durability, outcomes or happiness of such tenuous groupings. And that entity falls outside our discussion about the traditional family.

It is not like such persons are irrevocably on their own.  They can choose to return to the traditional family arrangement instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel.

The family is the mechanism for promulgating and nurturing our descendants and thus preserving humanity into perpetuity.

The family is the oldest, most durable and rewarding human institution. In fact, the family predates all other traditions, customs, and ceremonies.

It is unthinkable to imagine a race of humans without the family arrangement.

But like many other precious gifts, the family is under attack by forces that would undermine it and ruin its functionality and mar its pristine beauty.

We have compelling reasons to reexamine our view of the family with a determination to reinforce, enhance and preserve it.

Take a house, your home, for example. Instead of intentionally damaging it, breaking windows, hammering holes in the sheetrock, and hurling mud on the walls, smearing it; we beautify it, hanging cherished pictures, embellishing walls with crown molding, polishing hardwood floors and otherwise adorning it.

We have similar choices with the family structure.  We can throw forceful blows against it or we can strengthen its pillars, girders, foundation, and trusses.

Common courtesies reinforce families. Some friends come and go. But the family is here to stay. Take the view that whatever difficulties risk the harmony of the family, that this trial will also pass. Persevere. Please and thank you are not old-fashioned. Taking meals together engenders a more abiding family spirit, intimacy, and love, creating enduring memories for all to cherish.

Enjoy vacations together and take pictures. Have fun making your home a haven and a social hub.  Make your home family friendly. Keep family strong.