Family: The most important unit in time, eternity

It will be eight days into 2026 before you read or form an opinion about what is written in this article.  As a point of context, it may be helpful to identify the most important organizational unit both in time and in eternity.  Our initial tendencies to do this may draw our attention to schools, civic clubs, and teams of all kinds, universities, or even governments.

David O. McKay, a past President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”  Another wise person has said, “The most important work any man or woman will do in this life is within the walls of their own home.”  Abraham Lincoln said of his mother, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”  Consider this quote from George Bernard Shaw, “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”  Finally, Pope John XXlll observed, “The family is the first essential cell of human society.”

This small sample of thoughts about the family leads us to conclude that the family is indeed, or should indeed, be considered the most important of all organizational units in time or in eternity.

For additional context it may be helpful to understand the basic elements of all adverse conflicts.  My Granny said, “You will find in life that doing evil seems to be downhill and doing good seems to be uphill.  Don’t believe it! The Devil pulls you down. The Lord leads you upward.” Eric Burdon reveals an eternal truth saying, “Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win.”  And then with profound insight he concludes, “And one cannot exist without the other.”

This small sample of thoughts certainly leaves us to conclude that the basic elements of all adverse conflicts are simply what is good and what is evil.  A wise sage has said, “He who is forced against his will is of his own opinion still.”  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn correctly observed that, “The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”  Paul instructed the Romans (12:9)—and likewise us today, “Let love be without dissimulation.  Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” Thus, we must conclude that we are free to choose to do good or to do evil.

What better time exists than at the beginning of a New Year to rededicate ourselves to the proposition that the most important things we can do in this New Year or any year is to fortify and stabilize our families against forces, seen and unseen, that are trying to destroy families?

Surely we have lived to see the day when men call good evil and conversely they call evil good.  Alarmingly, we see some elected officials in our State and Federal governments call evil good and promote all kinds of anti-family policies.

Some may initially say in response to those statements, “Well Duh,” meaning no kidding or so what is the point? But we should all remind ourselves that many times life’s most emphatic truths are “hidden” right in front of our eyes and that missing the obvious may hinder or even stifle our efforts to do that which is best to help the family continue to be the “first essential cell of human society.”

Remember this warning from Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

We, the people, should realize that the family, not the government or any other organization, is the most important unit in time or eternity; but we must elect government officials who will promote, not destroy, God’s plans for traditional families.

Rep. Jimmy Dixon represents Duplin and Wayne counties in the N.C. House of Representatives.