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CHRISTIAN FAMILY: Systems Overview
FAMILY OF MAN: God's Perfect Plan
The family is God's perfect design for us to live in unity. Just as with the entire ecosystem, He has created a "family" system that is interdependent and intricately woven. This family system, as other groups of creatures, is based on relationships, that in the correct balance, sustain each organism, and more importantly, sustain the integrity of the whole.
This design is most perfect in its structure and function. Each organism has a role in the system and each role is necessary for the survival of the unit. A critical isue for the family and its members is the definition of survival. On a primal level, as in all of nature, survival means sustaining physical life, earthly life. On an emotional/cognitive level, it means remaining connected to the people who love and accept us or at least have regard for each other and have common viewpoints. God created the "family" of man with an inherent desire to seek that which is more powerful and can therefore, ensure survival on a higher level. God intended for us to seek Him so our eternal survival is assured, but He also created man with the ability to choose what he seeks.
The Family System
FAMILY OF ORIGIN
The smallest, most intimate group is the family of origin (FOO). While the members of this family will become members of many other groups (or "families") in their lifetime, the core family membership remains the same. The human dynamics of all groups are similar to that of the core family, but have different purposes and levels of intimacy. In fact, the roles and values we learn in our family of origin are carried in to every group in which we exist.
FOR EVERY ACTION, THERE'S A REACTION
The family system follows the laws of physics...nothing lives in isolation. Picture the family as a hanging mobile with each person as a part that is connected. As in all mobiles, any action on one part, effects all. A wind blows one and each moves. The family dynamics works to sustain "survival" or equilibrium regardless of the force. What survival we seek will be determined by whether Jesus is in the central force of the family. If he is not, the members will be in constant pursuit of a greater power to sustain will look to wordly sources.
FAMILY-Template For All Groups
God created man as social beings to exist in relationship to Him first, then to others. As we have seen, the family unit is the smallest and most intimate social group. However, since we can only exist in relation to the family of man, all we do is in the context of others. The dynamics of all groups are similar to that of the core family. On some level no matter what group we are in, we all are looking for love and acceptance. What changes is the purpose of the group and the level of intimacy involved.
The Whole is Greater...
Just as in His universe, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When we work together to grow in unity to find and do God's will, the result is more glorious than any individual pursuit. While all members have their own process and personality, we must look at them in the context of the whole family dynamics to really understand their behavior.
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9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
Deuteronomy 4:9
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SUBMIT YOUR TESTIMONY
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13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love..
Ephesians 4:13-16
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