Post-Christmas: Family Restoration

Aside from the presents, parties, abundance of food and continuing family traditions, Christmas is a great time to reconnect with family. I suppose, it is the Christmas season that provides a great reminder of the importance of family. With that being said, I hope your Christmas was full of remembering Jesus' birth, family and rich Christmas traditions.

I've been thinking about the subject of 'family' a lot lately. I'm sure Christmas had a lot to do with it, but what further cemented was the 3 Dimensional Life graduation held yesterday at Free Chapel. While we are immensely proud of our students and their achievements, there was a phrase that continued to come up: family restoration.

When a student comes to 3 Dimensional Life, its because they want freedom from their destructive behavior. What is truly amazing is how that singular goal blossoms out. Families are brought back together, relationships with parents and siblings are restored. At graduation, over and over again, restored families were emphasized. Students were sharing about how they can have conversations with their parents without yelling and quality family time is enjoyed. What a miracle. Really, we can't be given credit for this, it's really the LORD.

As we are watching family restoration take place, I'm reminded of the following story:
"A study was once done on two men who lived during the late 1700's, both from the state of New York.
The first man, Max Jukes, did not believe in Christ or in Christian training. He refused to take his children to church, even when they asked to go. Max's decision was very destructive to to his family and costly to the state of New York. Max had 903 known descendants. Of Max's descendants: 100 were sent to prison for an average term of 13 years, 90 were public prostitutes, 145 were admitted alcoholics, 285 had social diseases and 300 were delinquents. The report estimated that the crimes and care of the Max Jukes family line cost the state of New York over one million dollars.
The second man studied, was the puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards. He was an uncompromising theologian and pastor who lived to please God and was a man of prayer. The research found 1,394 descendants of Jonathan Edwards. His descendants included: 13 college presidents, 65 prominent lawyers, 32 noted authors, 90 physicians, 86 state senators, 30 judges, 3 congressmen, 1 Vice-President of the US, and 200 ministers of the Gospel. It has been said that this family never cost the state of New York one penny for any kind of rehabilitation or for incarceration."

This is a great reminder of how lives are being changed at 3 Dimensional Life; not just students, but families as well.