Families are in need everywhere. Broken relationships, hurting individuals and families, painful pasts, irreconcilable difference, breakdown in communication, absence of intimacy, and marital conflicts and violence are destroying families all around us. Families are in crisis! There has been a sharp surge of family breakdown in our community in recent years. Divorce is growing at an alarming rate in our community and marital disharmony is common across cities and faith backgrounds. The lack of moral and spiritual values, changing gender roles, absence of adequate support systems in the adopted land, cultural differences, and poorer relational skills may be some of the causes of the fundamental breakdown of families in the Indian community.

The saying goes: “Behind every successful man there is a woman.” Well I believe that even behind a successful bachelor, there is a woman - a mother. Even if you look into the lives of those that have lost their mothers at an early age, there would surely be another woman – may be an aunt, a teacher, an elder sister, or a church elder who loved them just like their own. Mothers can play a vital role in shaping their children into history makers. The all important role of mothers has not changed at all over the years, but sadly, our changing culture has led to a drastic change in the way we perceive the role of a mother today.

I think Indian people are great worriers by nature.  Just think about your parents for a second:  most Indian parents worry about their mortgage payments, car payments, household expenses, children’s expenses, vacation expenses, they worry about their job security, about their promotion opportunities, they worry about their wife/husband, kids, family in India/North America, and they worry if they’re being Christ-like examples to their kids, if the Church is growing...there are very few things Indian parents don’t worry about, and fewer things they aren’t afraid to tell their kids that they worry about those things!  And then there’s our generation we worry about our parents and all their worries, we worry about friends, grades, whether we’ll get into A university/college, then we worry about WHICH university/college we’ll get into, we worry if we’re living how God wants us to, if there are enough youth in our youth group, we worry about our jobs, our future careers, our future families, and then we worry about our future worries . . .

Chinappa Moses David! He wasn’t popular. He wasn’t polished in education. He wasn’t prosperous. His work wasn’t professional. He wasn’t even a preacher. He didn’t possess any fascinating expertise according to the standards of the world. On the contrary, he was born to a poor family on October 24, 1940. He lost his father when he was a child. Life wasn’t easy for him. He was brought up under rugged circumstances. He was unloved, abused and neglected. He worked as an ordinary bus driver till the last day of his existence on earth. So what makes me to write about this person? Why should you read about this man?

With the advent of the Internet, pornography is only a click-away and more kids are falling prey to sexual addiction than ever before. According to some studies, nine in ten teens have been exposed to pornography. These days, one doesn't need to go looking for it, it comes flooding into our inboxes without any solicitations. The ubiquitous spam mails with adult content are freely floating around everywhere. Unsupervised access to broadband Internet has only aggravated the problem for teens. The growing interest of teens in social networking sites also poses grave danger and not to mention obscene and sexually explicit images and videos they "accidently" run into can get them hooked forever.

God designed family relationships as a place of security, safety, learning and joy. People need people; we are created to enjoy relationships, to love and be loved.  . . . . But it doesn’t take much observation to see families have been under immense attack. There has been a breakdown in the family unit. Couples have suffered in their relationship with each other, which in turn has had a huge impact on their relationships with their children. What should have been a safe, secure place to learn and grow in many places has become a battleground of hurt, pain and mistrust. So people grow up with hurt, bitterness and a wrong understanding about life and relationships. 

The season of life just before and after the wedding is filled with passion and the flame of romance burns brightly. Thereafter, romance is often pushed to the back burner or completely evades the couple. Prolonged neglect of our mate stifles the life out of the marriage. We are created as relational beings and the longing to connect with others is one of the deepest longings of the human soul. We are internally wired for intimate and fulfilling relationship. Often when romance disappears from the marital relationship, we seek out other relationships for intimacy.

People often wed while they are in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, thus they have never worked through the grid of their relationship when all those euphoric feelings are missing. Also, most men are clueless in regards to the state of their relationship with their spouse. A few years after I was married, someone once asked me how my marriage was and I said great, not knowing that my marriage was in trouble because my wife was feeling alienated from me emotionally. If leaders would just learn to properly prioritize their marriage and family, focusing properly on what matters most, then all the other things they desire for significance will manifest in their proper time!

Phrases like "Men don't make passes at women who wear glasses" or "Gentlemen prefer blonds" may not be very popular here in India but the idea they represent is definitely prevalent. Men endorse near perfect beauties as the ideal image for women when they talk about serials such as "Bay Watch" and "Xena". No woman can compare and should be compared with these phoney images of women. However it is not only an outward image that is projected, there is also an attitude that is propagated along with it. Young girls are under tremendous pressure not only to look in a certain manner, in terms of their physical make up, and wear a certain type of clothing so that they are in the "IN crowd", but also to behave in a certain manner in order to stay in that elitist circle.

God's work in the world suffers today, because such men are few in number. Determine with all your heart that you will be such a man for God, in the midst of a sinful and adulterous generation and a compromising Christendom. Since there is no partiality with God, it is possible for you too to be such a man, provided you yourself earnestly desire to be one. Since God demands commitment and obedience only in the conscious area of one's life, it is possible for you to be such a man, even though the conscious area of your life may be limited. That area will keep increasing as you walk in the light and press on to perfection. There is no excuse then why you cannot be such a man. Cry out to God daily then, that He will give you grace to be such a man in these closing days of the age.

As a believer of true love and a lover of life, I perceive copulation as a holy and a sacred act. It is a God glorifying act that celebrates the covenant of marriage which is the physical and spiritual union of two monogamous individuals. It is a pure and powerful act that strengthens the relationship and it is well known among married couples that a good sex life is essential for a healthy relationship that is edifying to the two individuals. Sex is the act that consummates the marriage. It unites and cleaves the two individuals together that they shall metaphysically become one flesh. Read on as Rajwin Singh, a single guy researches and writes about "Sex" a taboo subject to most South Asians!

People often get married while they are in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, thus they have never worked through the grid of their relationship when all those euphoric feelings are missing. Also, most men are clueless in regards to the state of their relationship with their spouse. A few years after I was married, someone once asked me how my marriage was and I said great, not knowing that my marriage was in trouble because my wife was feeling alienated from me emotionally. If leaders would just learn to properly prioritize their marriage and family, focusing properly on what matters most, then all the other things they desire for significance will manifest in their proper time!

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit . . . . an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us." . . . . With this timeless truth and hope, we wish all South Asian Connection readers, viewers, friends and family a Blessed Christmas.

Marriage is a divine institution and we must seek God's help and guidance to make it work. The Bible speaks a lot about marriage - the way it is intended to be in the first place. However, with the pressures of modern lifestyle and demanding careers, marriage is often kept in the back burners for the urban families. Marriages do not crumble overnight but slowly over a period of time due to steady neglect. Sam George identifies 10 Marriage Killers and cautions us to guard our marriages lest we too fall through the cracks and become a statistic for seperation or divorce.