This last week my wife and I went to visit a place called, “Little town on the prairie”, De Smet, South Dakota. It was where the family of the famous writer Laura Ingalls Wilder lived for several years of their lives and many of them are buried there. Most people are more familiar with Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where this same family lived for a shorter time, and a television show called “Little house on the prairie” was based there. (By the way, I have been to that place as well).

One thing I noticed was that this family was very close and tried to spend as much time together as possible. Based on the stories that came out of our visit, the family remained close.

The parents took the time to teach and train their children the basics on how to survive and to be successful in the environment of which they lived.

They played together, worshipped together, and worked together.

Contrast that with today’s world; families who live in the same house rarely eat together or spend time together in that house and even if they do so, everyone seems to be on their own cell phone doing their own thing. As a result, very little teaching or training is done in the home; especially the teaching on morality and ethics with the truth source being the Bible. In today’s world it would be difficult for a child to obey what the writer of Proverbs instructs when it says: “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,” If families are going to be close again there is going to have to be some changes made. Some suggestions would be:

• Start worshipping together.

• Start praying at home together.

• Do fun things together as a family.

• Eat together with a rule of no electronic devices at the table.

• Share with one another both joys and frustrations.