|
impossible situation. A child would surely filibuster or refuse to agree to punishment if he or she were not forced. Wouldn't you?
As the Family Meeting story unfolds it becomes clear that Jesus instituted a heavenly decision-making process. And one that really works.
As father to his brothers and sisters after Joseph's death, Jesus used democratic Family Meetings, and in so doing, underscored a universal truth. "Justice is never a personal attitude; it is always a plural function." (114) I believe that the ramifications of this statement for parenting and family governance are profound, far reaching, and challenging for any parent who truly wants to follow the teachings of our Creator Son.
Family Meetings (Family Council practices)
The Chief of Seraphim of our planet says, "Human society would be greatly improved if the civilized races would more generally return to the family-council practices of the Andites." (941) Recall that the Andites were themselves superhuman, being the progeny of the Adamites and the Nodites. (871, 892)
What were the family-council practices of the Andites? This Primary Supernaphim further qualifies the nature of these Family Meetings by saying, "They did not maintain the patriarchal or autocratic form of family government. They were very brotherly and associative, freely and frankly discussing every proposal and regulation of a family nature." (941)
The book has little more to say on the way the Andites held their family-councils. I turned to Jesus to study the way he parented his own earthly family, for his divine mind surely knew (everything there is to know) about the family practices of the Andites.
In the section titled "The Nineteenth Year," I find the most explicit directions regarding the essentials of Family Meetings. Jesus invariably used the positive method of exhortation. He refrained from emphasizing evil by forbidding it. Family Meeting and prayer time went together. Jesus used wise discipline early in his siblings' training. A watchword of the family was "fairness." (1401, 1494) I have concluded that decisions relating to family matters were made unanimously, and that even punishment was agreed upon by all and even awaited the voluntary agreement of the offending person before being imposed. The story regarding little Jude is a poignant example. "On three occasions when it was deemed wise to punish Jude for self-confessed and deliberate violations of the family rules of conduct, his punishment was fixed by the unanimous decree of the older children and was assented to by Jude himself before it was inflicted." From this passage, among others, I infer the importance of unanimous decisions, the consensual decision-making process in Family Meetings.
In my experience, the most important feature of Family Meetings is to make every decision by unanimous agreement. Many families which have tried majority rule, direct parental authority, and other techniques have found that consensus works best. This means being patient and allowing for compromises and consensus building. Everyone, including each child, has equal and absolute veto power in Family Meeting decisions. It is okay to persuade family members toward a point of view but
the taint of coercion should be avoided at all costs. This is aimed to comply with the divine mandate that creature will is inviolate. I reiterate, even the highest of spirit essences, the divine Adjusters, subordinate themselves to the human will. "The Adjusters respect your sovereignty of personality…" (1204)
I encourage parents to wisely and patiently shepherd the agenda of Family Meetings to allow a child the voting power appropriate to his or her developmental level. It is important for parents not to "pull rank," by arbitrarily negating a Family Meeting decision. Gradually, parents and children alike will come to rely on Family Meeting decisions and recognize the fairness and empowerment in the process. "Never should a righteous cause be promoted by force; spiritual victories can be won only by spiritual power." (1765)
Models from on High
Why would something so seemingly simple and mundane as Family Meetings meet with such high celestial approval as to be used by the Lord of a Universe in this culminating bestowal? Consider the parallel between the consensual nature of Jesus' Family Meetings and the technique of adjudication on the highest superuniverse levels. Think about this: Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia all end their careers with a supra-mortal Family Meeting. When a creature has made a final and a complete choice of unreality as his universe destiny, the extinction broadcast is not issued until there is unanimity among all three of the Ancients of Days. This form of consensual justice is all the more impressive when we consider that the Ancients of Days are the most powerful, perfect, divine, and mighty rulers in the time-space creations. (210) Yet, despite all this power and perfection of judgment, our Heavenly Father requires that no action be taken until the sinner himself approves of the justness of the verdict. (217, 615, 611) So this, too, is a kind of Family Meeting, albeit a cosmic and tragic one.
It looks to me like the Paradise Trinity reveals the loftiest version of Family Meetings. A Melchizedek of Nebadon states, "The Master, when on earth, admonished his followers that
|
|
