A recent study by the Family Research Council offers encouragement for both the home and the faith. Doctors Nicholas Zill and Phillip Fletcher found a “startling discrepancy between children who live with both biological parents and attend religious services weekly, and those from broken homes who worship less frequently.” Using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, they found “students from intact, churchgoing families are five times less likely to repeat a grade. Less than 21% of these parents were contacted by their school for behavior or achievement problems, compared to 53% whose children were not living with both parents and not attending services regularly. The more frequently a family worships together, it seems, the less anxious moms and dads are about their children’s school performance.”
Even more surprising is that these differences held true even after considering family income and poverty, parent’s education level, race and ethnicity. As the report stated, “Children thrive, the family bond strengthens, school success skyrockets, and the nation reaps the reward.” Church and family seem to be the “perfect prescription” for many social problems faced in our nation today.
This data just confirms what so many of us realize about the importance of both the home and the Lord’s church. We are created by God, and He knows best what it takes for us to live an abundant life here and now. Solomon advises us, “Buy truth, and do not sell it, get wisdom and instruction and understanding” (Proverbs 23:23). The importance of a complete education, both spiritually and otherwise, cannot be overstated. Just as important as this is the role the church is to play in our lives. We find worth and value, individually and as family units, by being active in the work of the church. It enables us to grow in the image of Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16), and live more as God intends, which is the best life to live. The value of worship, and worshipping together as a family, is inestimable as well. No wonder the Hebrew writer encouraged his readers, and us, “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).
Unfortunately, most of the world, and even many in the Lord’s church, do not understand this very basic principle. To ignore God and the importance of the home has brought so much hurt to so many people. Yet, Satan has deceived the world into thinking all the evil around us, which afflicts us individually, as families and as a society, has nothing to do with sin that is so prevalent. “In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
If a change for the better is to happen, it will happen with those in the body of Christ truly being light and salt (Matthew 5:13-16). If the world does not see a difference in us from it, then what is there to attract them to the Gospel, and the blessed life it provides? Commit yourself to being a strong, integral part of your family, fulfilling the God-given role you have. Commit yourself to being a strong, integral part of the church, using your God-given talents to serve. It can make a difference, not just for you, and your family and the body of Christ, but perhaps your part of the world. “Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).
