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07/21/08
Families Adrift
Some businesses mistakenly operate as though the market share controlled or amount of success enjoyed will endure forever. Major institutions cling to products of growing obsolescence with the false hope that the changing desires of the marketplace will stop for them. Family owned enterprises sometimes fail when the torch is passed to the next generation. The heir is solely blamed, when in reality the previous administration is partially culpable for faulty assumptions they made. By equating a shared family name with learned business aptitudes they charted a course of certain failure before ever changing leadership.
The family endures much of the same difficulties. Vast amounts of energy have been spent trying to divert or dam the rivers of societal change. Some parents watch the boats of their children’s lives hurled madly about and express disdain at their lack of navigational skills. Yet they share their guilt for having mistakenly assumed the faith they learned would automatically be passed on to their offspring.
Often I hear the cry that the family needs a return to her roots. If we could just get back the quiet life of Leave it to Beaver, we could usher in an era of tranquility. Be assured that Brittany Spears will become preseident of the Southern Baptist convention, Sinead O'Connor will head the NRA and Richard Simmons will be the Commandant ofthe Marine Corps before the river of societal change will be slowed.
What hope is there for the family? It is impossible to stand on the banks of life’s river, to slow its’ waters or substantially change its’ course. What must occur in my family in order to survive? In a physically affluent yet morally depraved land we must follow the wisdom found in Deuteronomy 6:1-24 and intentionally pass our faith on to the next generation.
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