Sunshine's Mission Right On the Money

Focusing on marriages and children as the mission of our congregation may have seemed a little exclusive to those of us who are single, widowed, teenagers, or divorcees. However, if we look beyond the apparent limitations of this mission, we should, after a little thought, find ourselves somewhere within the scope of this focus. After all, we have all been shaped and influenced by our family structures and continue to be influenced by family dynamics - even if our parents are deceased.

I often find myself doing perhaps a little too much introspection into why I think, feel, and act in certain ways - and I can trace this right back to my environment as a child and even presently to the environment, that by default, I often create for myself. There's a nature vs. nurture debate in psychological circles regarding all sorts of conditions and situations people may find themselves in. And it seems that our irresponsible culture will not rest until we can blame every malady on our biological and genetic composition. I am neither a trained biologist nor psychologist, but have explored sufficient amounts of research to understand that our emotional and mental functioning is directly related to our environment and the patterns we (consiously and subconsiously) pick up from relationships in childhood with parents and parental figures. The scary thing is that our early experiences whether good or bad actually have a formative effect on our brain chemistry. This is amazing to me. Here is a link to the Center for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r980514.htm Another link to a Congressional panel on early child development: http://www.developingchild.net/news/National_Summit_Levitt.pdf
Although, this research is secular - the main points do not conflict with Biblical truth. In fact, most, if not all, of the problems outlined in these documents would cease to exist if marriages followed the Biblical pattern.

Not only do early experiences influence our brain chemistry, and emotional and mental functioning; what we witness from our parent's relationship shapes our future relationships! I picked up a great book on this topic: What Children Learn from Their Parent's Marriage by Judith P. Siegel. Here's the link with more informtion: http://www.parents-talk.com/expertsadvice/ea_pa_0014.html. I am not a parent (yet), but having grown up in a difficult family dynamic, I would recommend this book to all parents who want to make sure there children aren't learning dysfunction from silent observation. It's easily located on http://www.amazon.com/.

Early experiences and observations from our parent's interaction with each other also work together to pervert or complement our image of God. What our parents did and how our family portrayed faith can give us great gains in our faith or cause us life-long problems in our perception of God. It would almost seem that a healthy Christian family is essential for a child to grow up with the right image of the Lord. Fortunately, God is still in the business of intervening - but our misconceptions and distorted perceptions often unneccessarily complicate this process.

So, more than 2 years after the Elders unveiled the mission for Sunshine, it's evident that this was a very prudent decision and our congregation would be wise to increase efforts to support marriages and at some point possibly offer intervention for children stuck in unhealthy home environments. Unhealthy families breed individuals with personal and relational problems with God, other people, and self.

Sunshine, our mission is right on the money.