What is an Ideal Family?

What is an ideal family, and more importantly, how do I create one?

In our teaching, we call the family the "School of love". As we grow from being children to adults, we are supposed to naturally learn how to be a wholesome and complete human being from our relationships in our family. Our first experience of the love of God was meant to come from our parents, the sacrificial love that parents have for their children. We learn to relate to all kinds of people by being in loving relationships with our siblings, parents and grandparents, and it is through this nurturing environment that we learn to care for others.

The family is, according to God's original design, the source of joy and life for all human beings. It is the starting point from which we create healthy individuals and healthy societies, ultimately creating a healthy and peaceful world.

However, instead of being a source of nurturing and love and an example of God's love, our family relationships are so often crippled and leave us with deep emotional or physical scars. Many of the things that we see commonly in society, such as abuse and divorce, were never a part of God's original plan. For many, the family has become the ultimate source of suffering, and it is no surprise that many people today do not want to commit to marriage or to having children.

We teach that the problems of this world are rooted in the problems in the family. The family is the cornerstone of society. However, what is the standard of family that God originally desired when He/She created human beings? Surely, it can not be the families that we see today in the world. There would be no need to believe in such a God. However, if we can discover God's original design for our families and work to create that in our world today, we can work towards building a peaceful world, one family at a time.