Mary Ella Throener

The Ideal Family 101 Mary Ella Throener

Family life is what makes a great world! What educational courses do we have on this? Do we have a family course in every grade level at school? How many papers do the young write on this topic? How important is family? The value of life itself is reflected in family life and church life and the world. So how high should our expectations of family life be? What action plans can we make and do? When we have plans, we also have a purpose. When the love of family life is at the heart and soul of every boy/man and every girl/woman, beginning at conception and continuing on through every minute of every day, violence will fade as something that is not good. It will be replaced with gratitude for our own lives and the life of every other human being! What can we do and promote to help make this happen? Do we invite grandpas and/or grandmas to our schools and churches to talk about how great it is to be grandpas and grandmas (or great-grandpas and great-grandmas)? Do we ask them to talk about what good things they did to make their family life good and/or what they could have done better and want to teach/tell the younger people? Wouldn't it be great if the love for family life was so highly valued and if peace and the unity of families would be the future for the next generations? Who is the ideal family? The ideal family reflects God's love to the world! God's love is one that sacrifices, one that has empathy for others, one that has performed miracles. It is so good to have plans in a family. An example that became humorous many years later in our family was that our fifth daughter never mowed the lawn, and we were all so busy, we didn't notice it until she was an adult! So it is good to make sure we have plans and purpose to our family life. Life is too short for us to be just floating along. This is a good memory to laugh about because we do live in a world that is not perfect. This is earth, not heaven. People and human families may have opinions, they may have perspectives, and they may be giving their all to do good for others. This is a good kind of family life!