The Maker’s prescription can solve crime, violence in family
HELLO, MI neighbour! Sadly, the modern-day home is fast becoming a danger zone. Are measures in place to deter crime and violence in this space adequate? Who demonstrates when a husband kills a wife and vice
versa. Are marriage vows no longer applicable in this 21st century? Who issued the permit for couples to use guns, knives, and machetes to settle domestic disputes? Sobering questions.
Decades ago in Jamaica, domestic disputes were often resolved with the help of neighbours who just got involved: the disagreeing couple would either go to the neighbours or the neighbours would voluntarily intervene on the onset of a quarrel to restore peace.
Children who were inclined to be disrespectful felt the full force of the adult population who would have none of it! Parents did not ‘spoil the child to spare the rod’. Rather, children were ‘trained up in the way they should go ... ‘: building rather than destroying the nation.
The old adage, ‘the family which prays together stays together’ has been proven to be true time and again. What then should family members do to improve home life and resolve conflicts before they escalate? You’ve got it: pray together. All that it takes is commitment, a little discipline and faith in God.
Home life was meant to be the next most beautiful experience on earth. There’s really ‘no place like home’. Mother, father and children sitting at the table around a meal, going for a walk, playing games together, etc, glue the family together. Gathering for family prayer before retiring to bed, waking the following morning to a brand new day to do it all over again give true meaning to life. What can ever destroy a family so fortified by these life-sustaining habits?
Even in families where the situation is not ideal, there can be peace, joy and happiness. There may be very little food on the table (if there is a table), only one bed for a family of six, etc, but with a conviction that ‘things will be better tomorrow’ and a commitment to hard work with faith in the Almighty to supply their ‘daily bread’ knowing that they ‘shall overcome someday,’ they will overcome!
Going back to my opening paragraph, there is a solution to crime and violence in the family. Just follow the Maker’s prescription below, as taken from the Bible.
MAKER’S PRESCRIPTION
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands ... For the husband is the head of the wife ...
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.
Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
The wife must respect her husband.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honour thy father and mother ... that it may be well with you, and you live long on the earth.
Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Until net time, here’s to a violence-free home.
THANKS TO DONOR
Joan, St Andrew, for children’s clothing and other goodies; Marcia, St Andrew, for clothing and household articles; Neighbour in St Andrew for mattress.
OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP
1. Leonie, Kingston, asking neighbours for a stove. Desperately needs a stove.
2. Neighbour, St Mary, asking for food kind and utensils to help provide food for the hungry in the community.
3. Yvonne, St James, has many needs. Asking for a sewing machine
4. Winsome, St Andrew, badly in need of a wheelchair for husband who got stroke.
5. Jean, St Mary, disabled and asking able-bodied neighbours for a mattress and a stove.
To help, please call Silton Townsend @ 334-8165, 884-3866, or deposit to acct # 351 044 276 NCB. (Bank routing #: JNCBJMKX) or send donations to HELLO NEIGHBOUR C/o 53 Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston 10; Paypal/credit card: email: zicron22@yahoo.com. Or contact email helloneighbour@yahoo.com. Mr Townsend exclusively manages the collections and distributions mentioned in this column and is neither an employee nor agent of The Gleaner.