Perhaps the biggest factor affecting poverty is the family.
Family relationships can be both positive and negative.
Families cost a lot but also make living life more worthwhile.
Families can provide tremendous support and encouragement but also can be the source of unimaginable pain and despair.
Within family relationships there exists the potential of commitment and love unlike any other.
Family has the power to overcome almost all problems associated with poverty!
From the very beginning of each person’s life there is a bond, a connection, an attachment that endures throughout life. This is true for each and every family.
Nothing can substitute for the enduring nature of family.
We recognize that not everyone experiences family as God intended.
There is another family, a far greater family, available to all, the family of God.
This family can provide support and encouragement above and beyond our birth family when that family is lacking.
We view others, not part of our family, as family.
At the very least, we share a recognition, that every person has the same passion and commitment to their family as we do our own.
We love our family but we must also love our neighbors even as we love ourselves. To focus solely on our own family is to ignore the broader needs of society in general and is in fact limiting and selfish. One must love one’s family but to love only one’s family is to ignore the needs of all other families and those without a family.
Love thus transcends family to include those outside our family, for example, the weak, the lonely, the hungry, the thirsty, those who have no family.
The most vulnerable need family like no other.
Every generation is building and leaving a legacy from which the next generation will continue.