For the last few months I heard about the nuclear family. Not being totally up on the English language I was trying to understand what the atomic power has to do with a family. Apparently nuclear Family is not about the nucleus of an atom but about the relationship to the nucleus of a cell. So I learned something new.
This new phrase that I learned brought to my attention something different--the condition of our families. I found out that 13.6 million single parents are raising up 21 million children. This was a really surprising number. It means that 34.6 millions people are living in the situation that doesn't reflect this nuclear family. It means that 21 million people in the future will be looking to find some missing part from their childhood. It means that 13.6 millions people are struggling and left alone to deal with the more and more complicated reality of this world. This really gave me some goose bumps. But should I be surprised?
Apparently we have right now about 73 million children in the USA with 69% having both parents. This means that 31% live with one parent only. I know that we can say it is not that bad but having two parents doesn't mean that both parents are their biological parents.
And here is my doubt and confusion. Hypothetically: if 21 million people who never experience what a family life is like, will get married, what type of family they will be able to build. I am not saying that they cannot have family. I am asking rather what priorities will be the most important for those people. I would even ask more. How can we help them to make healthy families, where their past will not affect their lives?
I hear about new models of family that sound like social experiments. I hear that the children do not need two parents. I hear that we do not need fathers. Of course everything is proved by strange science. But somehow every time I talk to somebody from the single parent family, I see pain, sadness and a longing for something they missed in their past.
So maybe our families are nuclear like an atomic power. As long they follow the natural elements they are doing well and make our relationships great. But if you start to change it, play with it, break it, then it starts a chain reaction and explodes like an atomic bomb causing a lot of damage and suffering.
I think every time we try to correct God according to our own desires we bring big trouble upon ourselves. So let's return to the roots of family and show to the world that if we want to have a good country we have to respect the beauty and value of the healthy family.