God’s plan for your family is holiness. Each of us, married or single, is part of a family. We all have a part to play to redeem the world. The writings of Pope St. John Paul II provide a beautiful description of what it looks like to be a family after God’s own heart.
God’s plan for family life consists of setting your priorities with God at the center, cultivating a healthy family prayer life, engaging in family recreation, loving unconditionally, building community with other families, and evangelization.
Unconditional Love
“The family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God’s love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church His bride.”
– Familiaris Consortio #17 Pope St. John Paul II
What God has joined, let no one divide: your family was started on the day you got married. After you took your vows, the presider may have uttered words similar to the ones above. It not only applies to you and your spouse, but also to your entire family. The world seeks to separate what God has joined together. A strong relationship between parents and each child will assist them through the difficulties and struggles they encounter along their journey through life. St. John Paul II called this the communion of persons. A family is a community of persons, the first and most important community for every human being. The family can be a community where the members love one another unconditionally, or not; a place where the members feel safe, secure, and loved, or not; a place where they know people care about them, or not.
Parents have the most influence in defining the culture within their family. This culture should be healthy, loving, and life giving. This culture is fragile–it needs to be cultivated and constantly monitored. It is easy for excessive activities, negativity, sarcasm, the media, and unhealthy friendships to have an undesired effect on the culture of the family and on each member of the family. We need to instill in our children the confidence to truly know and believe that our love for them is unconditional. At the core of the family culture is the unconditional love between family members. The primary relationship is between the husband and wife and secondarily between parents and their children. If you get these right, the relationships between siblings will follow suit. Your family is a great gift from God, be sure to nurture and care for it.
“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
1 Cor. 13:1-3