The Culture of Family

This week’s post is all about culture. Culture can be defined in many ways, but one simple definition is that culture is the generally acceptable behavior within a group of people. There is family culture, there’s religious culture, there’s nation-wide culture, and so many other categories where culture can be found. The main focus of this post, of course, is family culture. In my family, however, our culture is heavily related to religious culture. Moreso, we rely on the principles found within the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There’s a wonderful proclamation that was given by a prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a man who has been called and ordained to be Jesus Christ’s mouthpiece on the earth, in 1995, all about the family. This proclamation is not meant for members of the Church of Jesus Christ only, but for the individuals and families of the world. When this proclamation was given, many members of the Church of Jesus Christ thought this was needless. There were some things in the world that might have been of concern as far as the family as a unit went, but things were looking just fine from where they were sitting. As time has passed, it has become more and more evident why this proclamation was needed.

Today there is so much in the news about whether certain laws on gender or marriage are going to be passed. There is a decline in marriages in general, thus leading to a decline in the number of children being born. We see more and more families where both parents are working long hours. There are split and broken families right and left. We are reaching an apocalyptic family era, and, whether people realize it or not, we are suffering because of it.

This is precisely what we were warned about in the Family: A Proclamation to the world: “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” The decline in family is something I’ve talked about already in a couple of my posts, but it is so prevalent in our day that it is hard not to talk about. I know God loves every individual on the earth, particularly because He is our Heavenly Father looking out for His children. Because He loves us, He has brought forth prophets to lead and guide and warn us when it is needed. The proclamation attached to this post is no joke. I know it was given through revelation to the prophet of God for us to know how to maneuver through the confusion of our day.

The best way to lead a family is to actually lead them. As was taught in the New Testament, “neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man,” (1 Corinthians 11:11), thus telling us that a husband and a wife should lead their family together. We have seen in history times when the man has been valued more than the woman, or where the woman had to be submissive to the man. I feel today we are seeing the opposite in effect. We need to do away with this mindset and find ways to work with each other. To be equal doesn’t mean to be identical.

Parents need to spend time with their children. Get to know them. Really listen to them. Try to love the things they love, or at least find ways to appreciate them so you can talk to them about the things they really care about. Money is important, but not more than life. Often, the thing a child wants more than anything is just to go to the park with mom and dad. And that park doesn’t need to be Disneyland.

The culture of the family affects the culture of an individual, community, and nation more than anything else. As we strengthen our families, we strengthen the world.

That might be the cheesiest thing I could have possibly ended with, but it is true nonetheless.