Families & Small and Simple Things

Family.  Does family actually matter?

Family is something so ingrained into society that sometimes we forget how much of an impact it can have.  I am obsessed with the concept of small and simple things (Alma 37:6-7).  It is this idea that it is difficult to see the impact of small and simple things, in the moment; However, over time, those small and simple things add up, creating great things.  For example, one penny found on the sidewalk is worth one cent, but if you found one penny every day of your life, it would add up to hundreds of dollars by the end of your life.  Small and simple things are the reason that people have such issues with their health.  In the moment, eating one more cookie doesn’t seem like a big of a deal, but after weeks and weeks of just eating one more cookie, it could have a significant negative effect on a person’s health.  I have been thinking about families and how they relate to this concept of small and simple things. At first glance families may seem like a simple, insignificant part of society; however, when society is made up of millions of families, each individual family contributes to the culture and outcome of our world. Just how big of an impact can family have?

In these past couple weeks as I have studied the impact of families in society, I have come to the conclusion that as a society, we are losing sight of the significance of families.  In the documentary I watched ("The New Economic Reality: Demographic Winter”), researchers highlight the causes of societal changes surrounding families.  This fascinating video highlights research about fertility rates overtime and how they have been decreasing as time goes on.  People are not desiring to have families less and less.

One cause of this is individualism.  Individualism is defined as, “the habit of being independent or self-reliant.”  In other words, it is a form of selfishness.  Our society is becoming obsessed with helping ourselves.  Making sure that my education is taken care of. That I have food, that I have money, that I have a profession. It is natural to want to avoid anything that doesn’t help ourselves. Why does this matter so much when it comes to families?

Because there is nothing individualistic about a family. At first glance, having a family is probably terrifying for most people.  Being responsible for more than just yourself adds an incomprehensible amount of risk to your life.  Bearing children comes with risks: financial risks, health risks, professional risks, relationship risks, time risks, hobby risks. The list goes on.  At first glance, starting a family is the last thing a person would want to do if they were focused on individualism.  It seems logical to avoid having a family; however, there is also an opposing concept of sacrifice.  In life we must sacrifice certain things for better things.  We can go for the instant gratification of skittles, or we can go through the patience and hard work of growing a garden.  One is easier to obtain than the other, but in the end, one provides more nutrients.  It is my belief that if we want a world full of non-nutritional Skittles, we will avoid having strong families at all costs, but if we want real nutrition, we will put in the work to have a strong family. 

Not only is a strong society dependent on strong families, it is also crucial that people learn for THEMSELVES what a strong family truly looks like.  After observing the article, “Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting,” I got a deeper look into the world of social science. There is a seemingly endless amount of social science research evaluating the family unit.  It becomes crucial to have the ability to sort through accurate research, so that we can know the TRUTH about families.  As Albert Einstein said, “Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.” 

Why would Albert Einstein say such a thing? Perhaps it was because even he understood that in the science world, conducting an accurate experiment that lead to truth is a very difficult task.  It takes a great deal of grit, precision, and hard work to develop accurate experiments regarding families. A person can conduct a half-hearted experiment and get results, but those results may not reveal truth. Seeking for truth takes a great deal of character, as Einstein stated. Hiding from the truth does no good to society.  Hiding from the truth is like trying to ignore the fact that there is a knife in your foot and telling yourself that it doesn’t matter.  The thing about truth is that it WORKS! So if we want to discover what truly works with families, we (as a society) need to be dedicated to basing our decisions off of accurate research.  As we do so, we will be lead to truth, “and the truth will set [us] free” (John 31:8).