The last few weeks saw heavy rains across eastern Australia. Around Brisbane, low-lying roads were cut, and driveways too.
While out for a morning jog, I saw an entire family – mum, dad, teenagers and a young girl – all shovelling (yes, everyone had a shovel)!
They were picking up their gravel driveway off the road and placing it in a trailer.
There is something special about seeing a whole family working together like that.
Fond Moments
It reminds me of Saturday gardening days as a kid. Dad’s on the mower, I’m playing in the pile of cut grass, my brother is in the wheelbarrow, mum’s pruning and my sister’s raking.
Nice memories, except for the hay fever.
G.K. Chesterton once put it: “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”
I ponder the beauty and strength of the family, and its vulnerability.
When family breaks, it really hurts.
A few years back my wife stumbled across a range of resources and blogs from the A.C.O.D. community, that is the adult children of divorce. She found it helpful to read and listen to others’ stories, which helped her process her own experience. This has meant that she has been able to help other children of divorce.
Role of the State
Governments rely on the strength and natural industriousness of the family unit, which at the same time needs the protections that government provides.
However, government policies can hinder and frustrate the natural economy of the family, which is vulnerable to misgovernment.
This is relevant to the current moves to infringe further into the rights of parents to educate their children in a school of their choice and their making. Also, the right to home-educate children. Both are under threat at present, particularly in Queensland.
Of course, when families break down, or suffer severe setbacks or injuries, governments have a role to help. However, extended family and community should be there too.
The problem we face is that, as community life and life with extended family becomes less common, many broken families now wholly rely on government assistance, possibly as the first and last recourse.
Renewal
The Movement’s focus has turned to rebuilding of community, formation and support by way of re-launching the Thomas More Centre, and the helpful analysis of critical issues here in News Weekly.
So, please join by encouraging your friends and family to subscribe to News Weekly, and attend or promote our various events upcoming in Brisbane (April 18), Albury (April 19-20), Indooroopilly (April 24), Wynnum (May 7), Redcliffe (May 8), Ipswich (May 9), Perth (May 15) and Sydney (YPAT, July).
Please pray for The Movement’s success and make a donation if you can.
By continuing to join together in local groups, clubs, churches, and other places, we can strengthen each other for the battles ahead.
