BECAUSE THE BIBLE COMMANDS PARENTS TO TEACH THEIR CHILDREN:
It goes back as least as far as Abraham in Genesis 18:17-19. It is included in one of the most familiar proverbs from Solomon: “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). Of course, the New Testament is equally explicit about the role of parents in teaching and training their children (Eph. 6:4).
Part of that training is teaching responsibility. Christian dads know: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). So Dads know they have to provide for their children and then they teach their children the same principle.
It comes as no surprise that secular research is going to come to this conclusion. It’s the exact same principles the Bible teaches. To avoid living in poverty: 1.) Get prepared for life first. 2.) Find a job. 3.) Get married responsibly. 4.) Then have children.
The American Enterprise Institute has its Institute for Family Studies which recently published a report called “Strong Families, Prosperous States: Do Healthy Families Affect the Wealth of States?” The unequivocal answer is YES! Among the 50 states that compose America, states with higher levels of marriage and, especially, higher levels of families with married parents, will have more economic growth, more economic mobility, less child poverty, and higher median family income.
On average, states with higher levels of marriage and families with married parents, there is a $1,451 higher GDP per capita, 10.5% greater upper income mobility, a 13.2% decline in the child poverty rate and a $3,654 higher median income per family.
The question is: Why? Why do states do better if they are composed of families with married parents? The Institute for Family Studies gives us some reasons:
1. Marriage motivates men to work harder, more strategically, and more successfully. Married men tend to shun drinking alcohol, at least in excess, and avoid criminal behavior. Christian men, of course, know that we are not only working to put food on the table for our families and clothes on their back, but we are also working for the Lord (Col. 3:23-24). Married men work 400 hours a year more and earn $16,000 a year more than unmarried men.
2. Children raised in two-parent homes are more likely to learn skills, habits, and values that cause them to be better employees.
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3. Children raised in two-parent homes, being in a better situation financially, have better access to opportunities to grow, learn, and receive other benefits.
4. While women may drop out of the workforce, especially when they have children under 18 years old, the overall impact is not significant when you compare them with unmarried women.
5. The net worth of married couples is nearly 100% higher than non-married couples and divorced individuals. Child poverty is three times higher among non-married families than married families.
6. All of this advantage holds true regardless of age, race, educational level, or geography – whites, blacks, college-educated, non-college educated.
Here is the conclusion to the study produced by The Institute for Family Studies: “To summarize, to the extent that states across the nation are home to strong families – especially as measured by the share of families headed by married parents – they enjoy above-average levels of economic growth, economic mobility, and median family income, and below-average levels of child poverty.”
The fact is, research supports Vishal Mangalwadi’s assertion: “The family is a civilizations’ primary engine for economic growth” (The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization, 289).
America needs the Bible for the family (and the economy). Follow God’s pattern in your own home and you’ll find success.
–Paul Holland
