God-centered relationships best for us
More money.
More sex.
Fewer rules.
Stereotypes suggest those are the things young people crave – the key ingredients to their happiness.
Not so, according to a recent survey by The Associated Press and MTV.
What really makes a kid happy these days?
“Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question,” the AP reports.
This improbable team of researchers questioned more than 1,200 young people between the ages of 13 and 24, aiming for insight into the nature of happiness among America’s youth.
More than anything else, young people pegged happiness to healthy family relationships and meaningful friendships.
Folks, these survey results ought not to surprise us.
The Bible tells us in its early pages that we’re better together than we are apart. We find our deepest contentment and joy in genuine fellowship with God and His people.
Families are God’s design for mankind. He created us to exist in relationships, not alone.
In fact, when God created the heavens and the earth, he declared everything to be very good – with just one exception.
“And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him.’ ” (Genesis 2:18 – NKJV)
Adam’s aloneness, God said, was not something to boast of, but something to be remedied. And so the family was created, and with it the dynamic relationships that nurture and train us still today.
When families are strong, so is the culture. When families wobble, so does the community.
This MTV survey is both encouraging and challenging.
It’s encouraging to know many young people remain strong enough to swim against the current of the culture and its predictable base attractions: sex, materialism and moral relativity.
I would think executives at MTV would now give a second thought to their program offerings, which lead viewers to believe all young people are empty-headed hedonists who hate their parents.
We know that’s not the case, but when will the mass media clue in?
There is a challenge in all of this, too, though. Relationships are true keys to wellness when they flow out of a love and reverence for God.
Without devotion to the Lord, relationships tend to fall a bit flat because they involve imperfect, selfish people.
I ought to know; I’m one of them.
Intangible tools that strengthen families – grace, forgiveness, forbearance and love – are God-supplied virtues. They flow out of reliance upon him. They flow out of faith in Jesus Christ.
And we counterfeit them at our own peril.
Need proof? Check the divorce records in today’s paper.
The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy of his praiseworthy heritage: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” (2 Timothy 1:5 – NIV)
Parents and grandparents do well to reinforce in their children and grandchildren the importance of family.
How much better it is, though, to lead them into personal relationship with the family’s creator and sustainer – God himself.
Within the MTV survey are some disturbing yet unremarkable findings.
Some young people lauding the family based their conclusion on having already tried some other things: Sex outside of marriage. Drugs. Chasing after more and more money. All came up empty on the happiness meter.
The culture will always offer alternatives to happiness that are far outside God’s perfect design of families committed to him. And that’s all the more reason to stick with God’s infallible plan.
As he prepared to lead God’s people into the Promised Land, Joshua issued a charge that still serves us well today.
“… Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 – NKJV)