Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
How about with our scripture text today we sermonize it as two for the price of one, or buy one and get one free, and have the choir sing just before the message. Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life! Yes, the Bible has the cure for all our social, mental, financial, educational, political and spiritual dilemmas.
Growing up, it was customary in my youth for the village to raise the child. Grandparents, especially grandma, was always present and was the force to be reckoned with. Check out many who are successful in life today and they will sing the praises of grandma like a canary. Yes she taught you how to pray, to read -- especially the Bible, to cook, wash and iron and daily gave the adage that manners will take you through the world. At that time it was the extended family living together under one roof, for the good of all, and grandfather was the king on the throne.
Today, a couple lives in a mansion with their pets and if children are present a foreign entity controls the roost. Family life is under terrible assault and as a result the nation is haywire.
The Beacon is a free newspaper with more than 200,000 persons for people over 50 living throughout Greater Washington, D.C. I secured a copy while visiting Washington recently and what a treasure trove of information. The front page headlined "Startups focus on better aging," and it is more than manicures and pedicures, hair styling, arched eyebrows and the likes, but how to be better and more useful to the youth and others who fall in the category of being marginalized.
"Creating an intergenerational household" by Eleanor Laise caught my attention and after reading it, I saw how other nationals come into our country and strive with their children. Watch and see come September how many will fill the classrooms. And it is all because of the intergenerational household. Here is what Laise wrote: Barbara William's home is a lively one. Much of the year, there are four generations under one roof. Williams, age 65, shares her five-bedroom home in Silver Springs, Md. with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and three young grandsons. And her 91-year-old mother regularly visits for several months at a stretch.
While the multigenerational living arrangement may be messy at times, "we had so many reasons to do it," said Williams, a retired editor of scientific journals.
It not only saves money, she said, but lets her watch her grandkids grow up, allows her to split household chores with her daughter, and reduces the stress of long-distance caregiving for her mother. "Even though there's more work to do," she said, "doing it together makes everything easier."
Williams and her family are among the growing number of Americans forming multigenerational households -- those that include two or more adult generations, or grandparents and grandchildren.
Although many people initially turned to multigenerational living to save money during the Great Recession, the arrangements have become even more popular as baby boomers and their parents age.
A record 60.6 million people, or 19 percent of the U.S. population, lived in such households in 2014 up from 51.5 million in 2009, according to recent Pew Research Center analysis.
Multigenerational living, of course, is nothing new. In 1950, 21 percent of the population lived in multigenerational households, according to Pew Research, but the figure plummeted to a low of 12 percent in 1980.
In the past 50 years or so, Americans "adopted this crazy idea of a nuclear family", Graham said. But the interdependence of the extended family he argues is "the natural way people have always lived."
There are benefits and challenges -- you put more people under one roof, and that's going to save a lot of money really quickly, Graham says, but the biggest advantage is the interpersonal and social benefit of having family members close by and helping one another out."
The arrangements can relieve the isolation often suffered by seniors living alone, offer the reassurance of having caregivers close at hand, give grandparents an opportunity to pass down family traditions to their grandchildren, and give parents a helping hand in caring for young children. Meanwhile, you're modeling what the next generation will do with their grandchildren and how they'll treat you when you're older.
But even the happiest of multigenerational homes face challenges. Every family member needs to maintain his or her privacy and respect boundaries. Housework and expenses need to be divided in a way that feels fair to everyone. Ownership of the house itself must be structured in a way that doesn't sabotage a senior's estate plan.
Perhaps you already have a home ideally suited for multigenerational living. If not, you'll need to weigh the costs and benefits of renovating your house, building a 'granny flat' in the back yard, buying an existing home, or designing and building a multigenerational dream house.
The only way that our text today can become relevant is for us to go back to the way it was, when families/tribes lived as one and as Paul said shared what they had in common with each other. It is not hard to find single, (for whatever reason), mothers in distress and homeless with children in tow and parents turning their backs and not allowing them to come back home and live as one.
A lot of the crime that is happening today is as a result of the division of the family -- children don't know grandparents -- brothers and sisters making it to the next level and giving no thought of others who are struggling in the valley of lack and want.
Older men and women, there is much work to be done on behalf of your generation. Why store up money and assets while your children and grandchildren suffer. Perhaps this was what my late father was saying when he shared with me that there are 10 of us and if we all pool our earnings, there will never be any lack among us. This is time for sowing seeds of kindness and love because all that you have will be left behind and what a pity if it gets in the wrong hands and your legacy is blown as dust to the wind.

o Email 241haystreet@gmail.com, rubyanndarling@yahoo.com, or Facebook Ruby Ann Darling with your prayer requests, concerns and comments. God's blessings!

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