National leaders seem to agree that "family values" will return our nation to normalcy and sanity, although there is disagreement about what is meant by the term. There is no question that the fragmentation of the American home is responsible for many of the ills besetting our nation. Factors in the fall of the Roman Empire, according to Gibbons, were divorce and loss of sanctity in the home. Coolidge said: "The greatest need of our nation is religion, the religion that centers in the home." A French statesman said: "What France needs is mothers." It is estimated that 37 million children in America receive no religious instruction. The restoration of homes and family values can help the nation, and it can also help the church. The logical place for revival and renewal to begin is in our Christian homes. Of the 105,000 hours a child normally spends between the ages of one and twenty-one, only 2100 hours are spent in the assembly (at the maximum), and 92,000 are spent at home. It is urgent that our homes awake to their opportunities and responsibilities.

A farmer was showing a friend the crops, herds and flocks on his farm. The friend was impressed with the splendid sheep, and asked how he managed to raise them. The farmer said: "I take care of my lambs." The lambs in our homes will be the sheep in the church of the future. We must care for them.

1. The home can help the church by teaching respect for authority. When the church is properly set in order, it will have elders, and they are to have authority in the local congregation. But a child who is not taught to respect parents likely will have no respect for elders. The time to teach respect for authority is in the play pen, not the state pen.

2. The home can help the church by practicing discipline. When children are not taught discipline at home, there will be no respect for discipline in the church. Someone said that psychology used to grow on bushes in the backyard. Child abuse cannot be justified under any circumstances, but causing the child to obey parents is not only justified but commanded.

3. The home can help the church by getting priorities straight. God has always demanded first place in the lives of his people (Ex 20:3-6; Matt 22:37). Home is where this priority is established. Pray tell me, what priorities are established when: (1) we are early to the ball game, but late to worship? (2) we encourage children to do school homework, but never to study the Bible? (3) we can't stay up late on school nights to attend a meeting, but we can on Saturday night to watch a late show and nod through worship on Sunday? (4) we won't let children miss school, but we will let them miss worship? (5) we gladly serve at school, but have no time for the church? (6) would not miss school for a vacation, but we will miss a gospel meeting or worship? (7) our children see us go to work not feeling well, but we stay away from worship? (8) we know all our children's teachers, but hardly any gospel preachers?

4. The home can help the church by loving and respecting leaders and preachers. Paul said:

"Know them which labour among you... esteem them very highly in love" (I Thess 5:12,13). When a family sits down after morning services to stewed elders, boiled song leaders and baked preacher, it hardly teaches respect. Do not knock the influence of someone who may be called upon to reach your loved one.

5. The home can help the church by giving it love, respect and support. The church provides something we cannot find anywhere else. Every member ought to be identified with a local congregation and then pledge undivided loyalty and support to it.

6. The home can help the church by encouraging meaningful worship. Regular and meaningful worship is taught at home A small child has an instinct to worship, but this can be lost. It is said that a dog is born with an instinct to bury bones, but if he is put on a concrete floor for a while, he will lose this instinct. The home should cultivate the instinct to worship.

7. The home can help the church by establishing high moral standards. The scourge of worldliness among Christians may be because a high rule of morality was not established at home.

8. The home can help the church by motivating and training young people for greater service in the church. Elders, preachers, and their wives are made in the home. I am quite certain that my own choice to become a preacher was made because of emphasis in my childhood home and because of the preachers who visited there.

Why are parents so neglectful in these matters? Is it because they are so busy heaping up this world's goods? Are we more interested in flocks than families? In herds than homes? In crops than children? In money than marriage? In business than boys? Are we so preoccupied with recreation that we neglect our children? Are we more interested in our golf swing than in our offspring? Parents have a powerful influence over the lives of their children and yet it has been estimated that the average American father gives 7 1/2 minutes per week of his time to his children. Such ought not to be. Think on these things!