The “nuclear family” is rapidly disappearing in the United States. It can be defined as having a mother, (whose primary role is caregiver), a father, (whose primary role is financial stability), and children. Though there are many factors outside the control of parents and children, this is the ideal offered in Scripture from the beginning.
There is much that can be drawn from the statistics offered above. If one is willing to make a correlation with data on the increase in crime, delinquency, deteriorating educational standards of achievement, and moral decay, the trajectory is not a positive one for families in general and youth specifically. The seams of our culture become more and more strained as the nuclear family comes increasingly under attack.
We know the forces aligned against God focus on the weak points of our society, and, one of the weakest links is the strength of the family unit. If that can be broken, it impacts the generations that follow.
Even though our citizenship is not of this world (Phil. 3:20), we are still held accountable as parents and caretakers for future generations. We can still make an impact and stand for Biblical principles of right and wrong for the sake of our families and our children’s families.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.