A Study on the Awareness of Spiritual Values among the Families

Family life is important to each and all of us. We all come out of families. Everyone wants a good, warm, and loving family, where people care for one another. A warm and loving family is God's plan for each of us. Their true worth and full meaning can be understood only in reference to one's eternal destiny. Once Gopalakrishna Gokale asked Gandhiji, “If you were walking along with your parents in a forest zone, suddenly a hungry tiger bounces on you, whom would you attempt to save first, dad or mom?” After a brief silence Gandhiji said, “I first jump before the hungry tiger and die, by so will save both my parents.” Good values are the spontaneous and natural manifestation of good character which is built on sound principles of moral life. God is the foundation and source of all good values. To face a life that is full of challenges, it is essential to empower oneself with good values. If all one’s learning and training cannot make one a person with good values, then one’s education is a failure. Some time ago Readers Digest carried a family quiz. It contained twelve questions addressed to parents. Let me quote three of the twelve questions. The first question: With guests at your dinner time, would you feel comfortable asking any of your children to say grace (prayer before meal)? And the second question: If you and your spouse were both reading in one room, would your children come sit in that room, too? And finally third question: Have your children ever told you that they want to have family just like yours when they get married? The thing that strikes one immediately about these three questions is that the family bonds are incredibly important, and are in fact the basis upon which is built a strong society. As a potter moulds clay to form a beautiful creation, so does the strong bond of family and good values. Family bonds are a link to one’s beginning and a guide to one’s future. Early influences are fundamental to one’s individual development. Value comes from the Latin word ‘valere’ which means to be of worth, to be strong. The dictionary gives the following meaning: relative worth, utility or importance, degree of excellence, something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable. Value literally means something that has a price, something precious, dear and worthwhile; hence something one is ready to suffer and sacrifice for; if necessary one is ready even to die for it. Moral and spiritual values refer to those values which are related to an individual’s character, nobility and personality conforming to what is right and virtuous. It relates to principles, conduct and practice of duties. It takes into consideration the good of all based on sound principles. Moral and spiritual values reveal a person’s self-control, self-purification and inner quality. Quite often moral values depict a person’s spiritual convictions and profoundness since morality and spirituality go hand in hand. Relevance of Spiritual Values and its Challenges in Family Life The family in the modern world, as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life. Finally, there are others who are hindered by various situations of injustice in the realization of their fundamental rights. Good and healthy, happy families do not just happen automatically. They must be encouraged and protected from anything that destroys them. The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity. But if it is to achieve the full flowering of its life and mission, it needs the kindly communion of minds and the joint deliberation of spouses, as well as the painstaking cooperation of parents in the education of their children. The active presence of the father is highly beneficial to their formation. The children, especially the younger among them, need the care of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be safely preserved, though the legitimate social progress of women should not be underrated on that account. Many negative phenomena which are today noted with regret in family life derive from the fact that in the new situations young people not only lose sight of the correct hierarchy of values but, since they no longer have certain criteria of behavior, they do not know how to face and deal with the new difficulties. But experience teaches that young people who have been well prepared for family life generally succeed better than others. In the case of families which, often independently of their own wishes and through pressures of various other kinds, find themselves faced by situations which are objectively difficult, it is necessary to call special attention to certain particular groups which are more in need not only of assistance but also of more incisive action upon public opinion and especially upon cultural, economic and juridical structures, in order that the profound causes of their needs may be eliminated as far as possible. Such, for example, are the families of migrant workers; the families of those obliged to be away for long periods, such as members of the armed forces, sailors and all kinds of itinerant people; the families of those in prison, of refugees and exiles; the families in big cities living, practically speaking, as outcasts; families with no home; incomplete or single-parent families; families with children that are handicapped or addicted to drugs; the families of alcoholics; families that have been uprooted from their cultural and social environment or are in danger of losing it; families discriminated against for political or other reasons; families that are ideologically divided; families that are unable to make ready contact with the community; families experiencing violence or unjust treatment because of their faith; teen-age married couples; the elderly, who are often obliged to live alone with inadequate means of subsistence.