Appreciation by Dr. Juan Harrison
Appreciation
Our old house is around the corner. The young couple listed it for $750K. Sounds crazy but you have to consider the house is over 4,000 ft. Current building costs are $150-$200 a square foot. Throw in a large Jacuzzi tub, swimming pool, and hot tub and you’re looking at $700-$800K at today’s prices. You can have a similar experience car or appliance shopping. Everything has appreciated in price or value.
That applies to the American family too. It has become rarer and more valuable as we remember Ozzie and Harriet, the Walton’s and Father Knows Best. Sometimes we turn the television back to a nostalgia channel where the home was headed by a dad and often a homemaker mom. With today’s high cost of living it’s getting harder and rarer to find that TV family as it appreciates in value. Most likely today mom and dad are both working outside the home or working at a job from home where they need to be focused on their job and helping meet all the family obligations that pull them in all directions. Moms often find themselves working fulltime outside and then about full time in the house.
All there stresses have caused families to splinter and end in divorce. Men are often not there to serve as role models or advisors to the young, especially the boys. In some cultures the single mom may head up 75% of the families.
Powerful forces have descended onto the American family pulling it apart at the seams. Once the backbone of our society, the traditional family of Bible days is under attack from all directions, often the children suffer tremendously from the fractured structure. Girls fail to have a living example of what to look for in a mate. Boys fail to have a male role model to show them how to lead a family. As families crumble, so do many of the lives of our young ones who miss the security of a stable home and two sets of hands to help guide them to adulthood.
Material stuff may appreciate in value, but much of what people value falls down, quits running, is destroyed in time like the old homes we used to live in, the barns we used to work in, and the old cars we used to drive. Material stuff often requires constant repair like the old home people call a money pit. We clean out closets and garages and practically give it away and take the leftovers to Goodwill.
Unfortunately, some families are so fractured, some marriages so weakened by constant challenges, that they may never reap the benefits of value appreciation. Hopefully, partners in existing marriages will realize how special and valuable their relationship is to the family members and to the nation. The American family has been the fabric holding our country together for going on three centuries. Let’s pray for wisdom and strength from above for renewal of families here today.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
