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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Happy (07/12/07)
Families in today’s society have been predominately labeled as “dysfunctional.” The standards that ruled the “old fashioned” family do not apply today. Divorce rates are soaring and if there are two parents left in a family, mothers are often forced to work to help meet the expenses of life. Step parents of children created by previous marriages play a challenging role of providing love and affection for children that are not their own flesh and blood. Attention deficits are caused by these factors. The factors that control family life do not leave much room for the happy family.
While walking along the banks of the Big South Fork River with my five year old “step”-daughter, her three sisters, and her mother, my wife, the suggestion was made to the children to go for a walk together on the trails leading through the beautiful state forest that borders the river in the Tennessee mountain region.
“Like a happy family!” the child joyously exclaimed. For five years this child had not bonded with her own father.
As a step-parent, I see what separation does to children’s feelings so often forgotten when adults in a marriage relationship can’t maintain an agreeable solution on what is truly best for the child. Children’s feelings are overlooked in custody battles or total desertion by one or both parents. Step-parents that enter into the role as father or mother are resented because they are not the child’s “real” mom or dad.
The key to having a happy family is maintaining a Godly relationship. People are not created to be alone, but at the same time we are not to be unequally yoked in a relationship that God did not ordain. Because we are not patient for God to send us the right person, we jump blindly into relationships that are destined to fail. The children are the ones who suffer the most.
The King James Version states in Psalm 144:7 “… happy is that people whose God is Lord.” The world is too busy making decisions without praying and asking God to guide them into the peace that He so longingly wishes to pour out upon us. Then when we fail, we blame God for not helping us.
For twenty years, happiness eluded me. Loneliness dictated my choices. Now, challenging as my “dysfunctional” family may be, I pray and ask God for His will in my life and the life of my family, and happiness is a part of our daily lives.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Christine Rhee
07/20/07
I have friends who now claim at their step-fathers, as their own dads. It takes time, but God can build you up together as a family who belongs to Him. Just keep hanging in there and loving that family God has given you. He very, very often works in ways we do not expect.
Dee Yoder
07/23/07
I think of Joseph as one of the most successful step-fathers ever! Jesus' own family is a great role model for the modern blended family.