Those of us who have worked for our mental health and personal growth often find that when we clear the pain and trauma of childhood from our psyche, we come to love our family of origin members unconditionally. Forgiveness always benefits us. We may not like certain behavior still, but the emotional charge is gone, the wounds are healed. Without hate, we can notice that our families did nurture us at least enough to survive and we can raise ourselves up the rest of the way. When our own parents let us down, life brought other caretakers into our lives as mentors and role models to help. It takes life energy to harbor and maintain hate. That life energy could be better put to use creating health!

If all would honor the idea of family – by loving our family unconditionally and putting family first – life would be very good indeed. It would be good for individuals as well as for our society at large.

The idea of family takes many forms. There is our family of origin – the one we grew up in – and there is our spiritual family. Friendships form extended families that make our communities. In the workplace, family patterns also develop. The divine idea and pattern of 'family' is one of the most sacred things on this planet. It is the nest we nurture in and the place we find our safety.

Family is the backbone of all societies. We are only as strong and healthy as our family at large because that's where human beings are produced. Societies that value and honor their children, grow, prosper and have less crime. Throughout human history, societies and countries that didn't honor their families and work to strengthen them often perished. It seems our world has been on the brink of downfall for awhile. Maybe if we all started thinking about producing the kind of world that would make healthy children instead of healthy pocketbooks we would begin to see a new trend.

To make us spiritually strong, we need to serve others. In spiritual service the greatest work we can do is strengthen the family and the idea of family. All parents are in spiritual service to their children. We can work to make the world a great place for kids through our products, businesses and churches. We can give money to educate children and make them better human beings. We can leave a legacy for future generations by nurturing all children and helping families. Anyone can be a support person to his or her friend's families. In this way, we honor God by honoring his main life creation, the family.

In spiritual service to children, the health community of Alaska and the Healing Toby Network produced 'The Kid's Clinic,' a free alternative health care clinic for children and pregnant women every month in Anchorage, from fall through spring. One of the Network’s goals is to strengthen Alaskan society by helping to strengthen and heal our children. Volunteer health care providers and body workers come together with this thought in mind. We realize that the physical health of children is very important because these are the future parents of future generations. To make a healthy world we have to make our children healthier. There is tremendous satisfaction knowing that we are helping these kids be disease free their whole lives by solving many problems before they can onset. This kind of service blesses our lives in countless ways.

What else can we do to make this world a better place?

These are only a few ways to help the world, God and country by honoring children and families. As this mission unfolds in your life, more and more creative ways to serve open up to you and your life becomes very rewarding and blessed.