2022 | Week of December 5 | Radio Transcript #1493

Wisconsin Family Council is all about strengthening, preserving, and promoting God's plan for marriage and family, the sanctity of human life and religious freedom in Wisconsin. That means we promote such ideas as preserving traditional marriage in our culture and in our government. It means we champion policies that help families remain or become independent. It means we support all efforts to protect human life from the moment of conception until natural death. It also means we seek to preserve the freedoms, especially the religious freedom, our God has given to us and that our forefathers secured in the Constitution.

While we prefer to be proactively and positively involved in strength, preserving, and promoting marriage, family, life, and religious freedom in Wisconsin, we sometimes also have to be on the defensive. For instance, preserving traditional marriage means we must oppose any effort or trend that threatens this institution. That means we stand against the legalizing any relationship and calling it marriage that is not one man and one woman in a monogamous, lifelong relationship. It means we oppose no-fault divorce because it weakens families and causes children untold trauma. It certainly means that we oppose any effort to advance abortion, including so-called comprehensive sex education in our schools, as well as opposing any and all efforts to legalize assisted suicide. It also means we stand opposed to efforts to silence Christians in the public arena, in the marketplace of ideas.

However, in the midst of all the "for and against" we have to do, we are fundamentally about families. We believe God's plan for humanity is rooted in the family unit, headed by one-man/one-woman marriages. As such, we believe the family unit should be strengthened everywhere possible. We know strong families are made one at a time and that strong families make strong churches which make strong communities that in turn give us strong states and ultimately a strong nation.

Making and keeping a family unit strong is hard work. It's never been easy, but it is especially hard today because of the multiple forces working to destroy that vital unit. Two parents working, geographic distance between extended family members, the media, entertainment, technology, busy schedules and on and on mean that parents must work harder than ever to ensure a healthy and strong family.

During this time of year, even how America celebrates Christmas can sometimes be a force that is more destructive than constructive for families. Already busy schedules become virtually harried. Home life is filled with decorating and baking and wrapping and all the other activities that we deem necessary to have a "good Christmas."

In the midst of all this activity, none of which is inherently bad, it's easy for the family unit to suffer. Instead of enjoying the season, we're all too often irritated and alienating rather than joyous and appealing. Of all the times in the year, when we should truly be celebrating family, it's Christmas, when we recognize the coming of the Christ Child to a family in Bethlehem.

Wisconsin Family Council wants to encourage you to celebrate Christmas this year with your family truly at the center of your celebration. Take time to nurture relationships within your family, listening attentively to your children and your spouse. Spend time doing genuinely fun things together that everyone can take part in.

If necessary, trim down the number of activities you have scheduled. Focus on those that give your entire family the greatest opportunity to celebrate together, from the youngest to the oldest. Make sure you plan to read the Christmas story together and attend a Christmas Eve church service, sitting together as a family. Decide as a family about giving gifts to others—and exemplify the biblical teaching of it's more blessed to give than receive. Take special care to protect your marriage. Don't let frenetic schedules rob you of time together. Strong families start with strong marriages.

A popular song tells us that Christmas is "the most wonderful time of the year." That's true—if your family is strengthened during this holy season. Wisconsin Family Council urges all fathers and mothers to purpose and plan that in the midst of all the tinsel and glitter and music and wonderful celebrations of this glorious Christmas season that you find a way to strengthen and preserve that most precious of earthly relationships—your family!

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you the prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”