One of the truly disturbing problems facing many people from all walks of life today is the breakdown of the family. The family as an institution is under siege. Assaults against it come in various forms, from economic pressures to moral decline, crimes, cultural changes, political conflicts, and others.
The warning appreciation of the value of family can be seen in the increasing number of divorced people or those seperated from their spouse, single mothers, unmarried couples living together, and the growing incidence of domestic violence.
The importance of a strong and intact family cannot be overemphasized. Studies have proven that there is a high correlation between broken homes and a whole range of troubled children. Most teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent. A large percentage of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals are reported to come from broken homes. Also, most adolescents caught up in the criminal justice system come from families where a parent (usually the father) is absent. As statistics have shown children growing up in single parent households are at greater risk for poverty, substance abuse, adolescents childbearing, criminality, suicide, mental illness, and dropping out of school than those in two-parent households.
Although many people profess to give priority to their family over and above anything, and even pay great compliments and praises to this most basic of social institutions, yet in actual situations they are likely to choose their career and personal happiness over their family obligations. Unless people themeselves do something to preserve their family, this will eventually collapse and everyone in it will be the loser.
Given the important role it plays in society, many organizations, especially the religious ones, are making determined efforts to support and strengthen the family. Such advocacy for a stronger family is for the best interest of the parents and their children.
Children who grow up in a family that molds their character and starts them towardsa full spiritual development are most likely to hold the family in high esteem and cherish and protect the one that they themselves will build.
