Magyar Egyház, 1972 (51. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1972-12-01 / 12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 15 THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY The father, the mother and the children make a family. Families make up the population of a city, and the people of all cities constitute a nation. According to this plain fact nothing plays a more important role in the life of a nation than the individual families. Destroy a family or let a family lose its God-ordered characteristics, and let this happen to thousands of families in a nation . . . CAN THAT NATION BE A HEALTHY NATION? Let us see now what makes a true Christian family, the only foundation of a nation: HUSBAND AND WIFE. In a true Christian family husband and wife love each other. They know that they are not perfect, yet their love enables them to overcome all difficulties that may endanger their marriage. Both a Christian husband and wife, in their daily prayers, ask God for spiritual strength to help, to forgive one another. PARENTS AND CHILDREN. True Christian parents regard their children as the most precious possession of their lives. After birth, children solely and entirely rely on their parents. According to the law of God no one but the father and mother are responsible both for the physical and spiritual development of their children. The whole future of the children depends on what they see and hear from their parents. WHAT SHOULD CHILDREN SEE AND HEAR FROM THEIR PARENTS? a. ) They should see that their parents are devoted to each other, they help each other and they are happy together. b. ) Children, right in their early age, should hear from their parents that there is God, a loving heavenly Father, who tells the children through the teachings of the parents what is good and what is bad, what the children are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do. c. ) Children should see that their parents are happy to go to church every Sunday and then, of course, the children will be more than anxious to go with them. d. ) Parents are supposed to awaken the desire in their children to go to Sunday School and the catechism class, by talking to them about the beautiful things they will learn about God and Jesus Christ. e. ) Children should see that their parents conduct an honest, moral life. They never should hear from their parents, for example, how to make money without honest work, or how to cheat others. They never should hear that their parents degrade or ridicule anyone or any group of people. They should see that their parents regard all men as children of God. They should see their parents as helpful toward all and that they live in peace with everybody. f.) Children should see that their parents are good citizens of the country. They respect the civil authorities, they obey the law and they are interested in electing the right persons to be entrusted leaders of the nation. If children see this in the lives of their parents, then it will be natural for them to respect and obey not only their fathers and mothers, hut their teachers and their rightful superiors, also. Stephen Kovács •'» 4 mi HONORS Mr. Ernest Kaplar was bom on Dec. 23, 1921 in Duquesne, Pa. A year later, the family moved to Gary, Indiana and there he attended Emerson High School graduating in 1940. He went on to obtain his B.A. Degree in Organ and Choral conducting at the Cosmopolitan Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois and also at Indiana University. He started playing the organ at the age of 13 in the Gary, Indiana Evangelical and Reformed Church under the Reverend Arpad Bakay, on an old pump organ. The church later purchased a pipe organ. Mr. Kaplar also worked with the late Rev. B. Szathmary, Rev. B. Bacsó and Rev. L. Molnár at the Gary church. He was the organist there until 1947, at which time, he took a position at the First Presbyterian Church in Gary, Indiana and in September of the same year, he went to the Detroit, Michigan, Hungarian Reformed Church where he has served for the past 25 years to the present as its organist, choirmaster, office manager, business manager and Director of Religious Education. RECEIVES
