Building a Stable Family Unit
Rebecca Hagelin on how you can help change society: “Love your spouse.”
By Rebecca Hagelin
If we’re going to fight the toxins that constantly threaten our culture, we have to make certain that we go about it the right way.
It’s going to involve a lot of vigilance and courage on your part. It’s going to mean keeping a sharp eye out for the most pernicious influences and taking stands that may not be very popular, either with your children or even with many other parents.
But there’s something else you have to do first if you’re to succeed in creating a healthier culture and building a grounded, courageous, and fulfilled family. It’s one of the most important things you can do because it provides a steady force, a place of comfort for your children in a harsh world, and more joy for you than you could ever imagine.
Love your spouse.
Sounds a little too simple, doesn’t it? After all, few of us would have married in the first place if we didn’t love that someone, right? Yet virtually all of us have experienced marital problems in some form or another – some much more severe than others. And we don’t need piles of scientific research (although there’s plenty out there) to know the harmful affects that marital problems have on both spouses and on their children.
You are not a bad person because you’ve experienced hardship in your marriage. And neither is your spouse. It’s important to recognize that the two of you are on the same team. And I cannot stress how important it is for you to learn (or relearn) how to function as one.
The strength of a home is determined by the materials from which the structure is built. Build the house from straw, and you’ve got a weaker structure than one made from brick. It’s as simple as the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” The same basic principle applies to a society. But instead of bricks or straw, the building element of every society is the family unit. Change the composition or the strength of the marriage unit, and you also end up changing the look, feel, and strength of the society in which those families live.
A stable family unit is the foundation for a stable society and for raising stable children. Creating sound, stable families is so obviously the answer to saving our society from a litany of social ills and heartbreak that it is often overlooked in a search for more complex – and less effective – “solutions.”
