It’s Time to Step Up

There are many people today trying to figure out how to fix our country. They have various ideas about how to deal with all the problems we’re facing as a nation.

But something that no one seems to be talking about is at the root of everything: the breakdown of the family. Studies have shown that you can take almost every social ill in America today and trace it directly to the breakdown of the family—and specifically to the absence of fathers.

When the family is strong, the church is strong. And when the church is strong, the nation is strong. But when the family breaks down, the nation breaks down with it.

I believe there’s a full-throated, all-out attack on the family in our nation today. It’s time for moms and dads to be the spiritual leaders in the home. And it’s time for grandparents to be spiritual leaders too.

In fact, we need grandparents as never before. Many grandparents today have stepped up to raise grandkids that moms and dads have abandoned. And I thank God for those grandparents. But I think we make it very hard to teach our children spiritual things by putting unnecessary pressure on ourselves.

We feel that we need to spend a specific amount of time talking to them about things we’re not comfortable with—in the most boring way imaginable. But the best way to teach kids spiritual values is to weave them into everyday life.

The Bible says this about God’s commands: “Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up” (Deuteronomy 6:7 NLT).

You can’t save America, and neither can I. You cannot save all the families in America. But you can save your family. So start there.