The months of May and June busy months for many families with graduations, changing of seasons, beginning of summer vacations, longer hours of daylight, travel, and more time spent outdoors. It is a time of transition and change for many people.
During these months, we also celebrate two traditional days that emphasize the importance of family life - Mother's Day on Sunday, May 12 and Father's Day on Sunday, June 16. Regarding Mother's Day, we find this information from one source: "Mother’s Day celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2014. In the year 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law Mother’s Day stating that the Day would be celebrated on the second Sunday of May and be a national holiday." As stated on one internet site regarding Father's Day: " The first time Father's Day was held in June was in 1910. Father's Day was officially recognized as a holiday in 1972 by President Nixon." Neither Mother's Day nor Father's Day are official legal, federal holidays, but they have become a part of the fabric of American life over the past decades. It has become tradition in most churches to honor mothers and women of the church and community on Mother's Day and father's and men on Father's Day.
To the primary point of this blog, the months of May and June should be a reminder of the importance of our families and homes. The first institution ordained by God was the family - before the church, government, business and industry, and other such entities. While our principal loyalty is always to God and we are called to place Him first in all things, a very important part of our calling as believers in Jesus Christ is to place emphasis on our families and homes. In serving God and doing His will, we will place priority on loving, nurturing, providing for, spending time with, and being involved in the lives of our family members. That includes our fathers and mothers, our children and grandchildren, and other members of our extended families.
One of the real blessings I enjoyed, as I grew up, was being surrounded by multiple generations of our family - parents, brother, grandparents, great-grandmother, aunts and uncles, cousins (from first cousins to more distant cousins). And many of our neighbors and friends were like family in terms of their love, support, and concern. While there may have been times when it seemed that "everyone knew everyone else's business," there was a sense of security and stability for the most part that is often lacking in our families and communities today.
This is not to suggest that any particular family or home is perfect - certainly not. We are all "sinners by nature" and are saved and enabled by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. All families have their struggles and challenges in the course of moving through this world. The church is called to be supportive of our families and to encourage parents and others taking care of our children and youth. Whether the home is a traditional structure, headed by a single parent, one where grandparents are raising their grandchildren, adoptive parents raising their children, or legal guardians providing for young people, we must be supportive, encouraging, and involved in helping our families with the love and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A lot of families are struggling today. Many of our children and youth do not have the connections to grandparents and other family members that many of us enjoyed. Let's be sure that we are supporting and encouraging our families and stressing the importance of our homes and families and ministering to them in the name of Jesus Christ. This is an important part of the mission of the church.