Illustration results for Family
Free Memorial Day Resources
Sermons & Illustrations: Top SermonsTop Illustrations
Sermon & Worship Packages: Time to Remember
Rob Culler
(Suggest a Keyword)
One day Adam and his boys were out for a walk and happened upon the Garden of Eden. One of the boys said, “Dad, what is that place?” Adam responded, “Guys, that’s where your mother ate us out of house and home.”
I HEARD OF YOUNG MOTHER WHO WENT DOWN TO THE NURSERY AT A HOSPITAL AND FOUND HER YOUNG HUSBAND PEERING DOWN AT HIS NEWBORN BABY WHO WAS ASLEEP. THE MOTHER COULD TELL HE WAS CAPTIVATED BY THE SCENE AS HE STOOD THERE LOOKING AT THE SLEEPING INFANT. SHE WAS SO TOUCHED THAT FINALLY SHE TIPTOED UP BEHIND HIM AND SLIPPED HER ARM THROUGH HIS AND SAID, "HONEY, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?" HE SAID, "I JUST CAN’T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY’RE ABLE TO MAKE A CRIB LIKE THIS FOR $89.95." FOR THE MOST PART FATHER’S ARE NOT AS SENTIMENTAL.
[Are Fathers Necessary?, Citation: Charles Colson, How Now Shall We Live (Tyndale, 1999)]
In How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson notes the disturbing realities that plague children who grow up without a father:
Children in single-parent families are five times more likely to be poor, and half the single mothers in the United States live below the poverty line.
Children of divorce suffer intense grief, which often lasts for many years.
Even as young adults, they are nearly twice as likely to require psychological help.
Children from disrupted families have more academic and behavioral problems at school and are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school.
Girls in single-parent homes are at a much greater risk for precocious sexuality and are two and a half times more likely to have a child out of wedlock.
Crime and substance abuse are strongly linked to fatherless households.
Statistics show that 60 percent of rapists grew up in fatherless homes, as did 72 percent of adolescent murderers, and 70 percent of all long-term prison inmates.
In fact, most of the social pathologies disrupting American life today can be traced to fatherlessness.
THE KIDS ARE COMING
The day before Thanksgiving an elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough. We’re sick of each other, and so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son called his sister, who exploded on the phone. "Like heck they’re getting divorced," she shouted, "I’ll take care of This." She called Phoenix immediately, and said to her father. "You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll b...
In 1993, social scientist Nicholas Zill reported that children of divorced parents are, regardless of their economic circumstances, more likely to have poor relationships with their parents, drop out of high school and receive psychological help.
Uses the following statistics to support his conclusion. According to Zill, the
high school dropout rate for teens whose parents are not divorced is 13% while the dropout
rate for those in single parent homes is 31%. Teens from divorced families are 3 times
likely to dropout than kids whose parents stay together even if they are not happy with
each other.
The teen pregnancy rate for among two parent families is 11% whereas the teen
pregnancy rate among divorced families is 33%. Teens from families where divorce occurs
are 3 times more likely to become pregnant than teens whose parents stay together.
Zill said, "Many people were saying single-parent families are just different, not necessarily worse or better, and the factors that link kids to problems have to do with poverty," Zill said. "But my research didn’t support that explanation."
Quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 5/27/96, page A16.
Divorce in America
In 1993 2.3 millions couples married and 1.3 million couples divorced.
In 1993 the Bureau of the Census projected that 4 of 10 first marriages will end in divorce.
People between the ages of 25 to 39 make up 60% of all divorces.
Over one million children are affected by divorce each year.
70% of all children born in 1980 will spend some time of their childhood in a single parent family.
75% of women and 80% of men remarry within 5 years after divorce.
Second marriages are at greater risk of ending in divorce that first marriages.
More people are part of second marriages today than first marriages.
http://www.divorcenter.org/faqs/stats.htm
This is the week we celebrate Thanksgiving. In many ways, it is one of the craziest weeks of the year. Now I know I am talking about other people’s families because there is no one here who is going to take the traditional Thanksgiving Day drive.
You know the one where you get up Thursday morning, pile into the family car, and fight bumper-to-bumper traffic down the I-5 corridor at white-knuckle speeds ranging from 75 miles per hour to a dead stop. Then you take the exit ramp too fast slide the pumpkin pie across the trunk it hits the fender knocking the entire pie filling to one side of the pan. Your wife looks at you and says, “Slow down before you kill us all.” You then push the gas pedal tight against the floor, because you are not going to be outdone by your brother-in-law, who is also on his way.
The kids in the back seat begin to scream and yell as if there was a python slithering across their legs. Why? Because one of these cheery sibling actually touched the other one. Now that the children are yelling at each other, the adults are yelling at the kids. You turn the corner clip the crib; you hear the bowl of mashed potatoes rolling across the trunk slamming into the back of the seat as the car comes to a complete stop in front of your in-laws, exactly 3 minutes, 45 seconds ahead of your brother-in-law. Then after 5 and a half hours of reserved aimless conversion with a gathering of people you only know because you are married to your wife. You get back in the car and begin the journey home by saying the exact same thing you said last year, “I will never come here again.”
A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE
This little grandmother was surprised by her 7 year old grandson one morning. He had made her coffee. She drank what was the worst cup of coffee in her life. When she got to the bottom there were three of those little green army men in the cup. She said, "Honey, what are the army men doing in my coffee?" Her grandson said, "Grandma, it says on TV, ’The best part of waking u...
We need not worry so much about what man descends from its what he descends to that shames the human race.
A PORT IN THE STORM
My grandmother was the one who took me to church at a young age and introduced me to Jesus. She was the one who raised me during the early years after my parents divorced. She was the one who prayed for me as I grew up, going between parents and providing a port in the storm when things got too tense with my parents. Had it not been for my godly grandmother, I shudder to think how my life would have turned out. Even though as an adult, I have often failed, her example to me has been my beacon and I thank God for her. To me, she was the epitome of Jesus in the earth. She truly expressed his love for me through her life.
SOURCE: Holly Ruddy, Huber Heights, OH. http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/grandparents/features/grandparents.html
Pastor's MediaVault
