I want to ask you a profound question. The answer to this question also answers many other questions as to the state of society, and personal development.

Before I ask you this question, I remind you that "once you understand the root, then you understand all of it's blossoming."

So with that in mind, here is the queston:

Do you know what is the number one common denominator of prisoners?

Drugs, you might say? Drugs are quite prevalent, but that's not it.

Smoking cigarrettes? A good guess, but that's not it either.

Alcoholism? Again a good guess, but still not it.

Sadly, and as a profound testimony to the state of modern society, the number one common denominator of prisoners is that they came from a fatherless home.

Numerous studies have also shown that gang members frequently come from broken homes with absent fathers and thus the gang becomes a substitute family.

A loving family unit of a father, mother and child, all working together with a common purpose, is perhaphs the most beautiful thing in all of God's creation, and the cornerstone of a stable and productive society.

Some people might resent my saying that, perhaphs if they're from a broken family, or one of their parents passed away at an early age.

I too am from a broken and poor family. My parents divorced the year I was born and I was raised by a single father who was quite justifiably stressed out trying to singly raise 4 kids on one income. Thanks dad, you did a hell of a good job in in spite of the odds against you and an enormously disadvantaged start!

Part of what makes a family so crucially important and necessary to the development of productive traits is that by learning to work together through times of adversity, integrity determination and perseverance are developed.

Thus character is born.

As we grow up and begin to understand the difficulties and responsibilities our parents face, and struggling with and laughing and cyring with siblings, we learn to be less judgemental and more compassionate towards others.

Thus compassion is born.

"Family values" is not a rhetorical slogan, but a a priceless treasure unmatched by anything that the pursuit of a "righteous mission," personal glory, pop culture, or poll-driven concensus-thinking has to offer.

The societal programmers and money-vultures profit greatly from the family's downfall. Whole industries and empires are built up to profit from the demise of the family.

Weak, broken or non-existent families leave as a product a status conscious, peer-dependent consumer who knows only the values of the popular and pleasure-seeking and is far more easily fleeced than a member of a solid family who is molded and guided by integrity, love, character and compassion.

Contemporary images of the father and family are Bart Simpson and Married With Children. A generation or two ago it was Archie Bunker. All wimpy fathers who are laughed at and ridiculed by the family, and the family itself not an integrous unit, but a collection of self- interested weak-minded vacant souls all in a contest of who can spout the wittiest remarks.

These images of the family are not the real family. They are nothing more than repetetive Hypnotic programming, more commonly known as mass media entertainment.

And unfortunately human nature tends to fall to it's weakest point, which is pride. So once we have a perception (hypnotic proramming), we project it out onto our world.

Perception is projection.

People project out onto their world what they perceive. So if these images are perceived long enough, they are believed, and then it is projected, thus perpetuating an unending cycle of confusion and chaos.

But as of right now, you can stop and step back and know that a family is a good right and wonderful thing, the highest worthy goal to be protected and nurtured. Not to be laughed at, mocked, or reluctantly defaulted to because you couldn't be a rock star or God's next great gift to the masses who is going to change the world.

If the world is going to be changed, it starts by strengthening families, not weakening them.

If you look closely, you'll usually find a broken family behind a broken person.

If your heart is hurting on this subject because you come from a broken or "disfunctional" family please know that many great and loving families were started by children of broken and disfunctional homes.

You do not have to repeat what you were brought up in.

If you were brought up in something bad, it does not mean that the ideal of a family is bad. It just means you experienced some bad circumstances in life.

You do not need to let those experiences command your future. You can give them a proper burial and leave them in the past, as you move forward toward a future with a higher purpose and a resolve to have "the real thing" as it should be, not as it was.

Know that if you do not have a family now, or have never truly had one, love and respect yourself and soon you will attract others who also have genuine love and respect.

It is my sincerest hope that you are inspired by these words to look deeper than the rhetorical media-driven image of what a family is and should be.

Best Always,