He didn't invent the term, "blended family." He didn't even know the term, and yet David experienced the same dynamic in his family, for he had eight wives who are specifically named in Scripture, plus others who are not identified, and he had nineteen children who are specifically named, plus many others who are not identified.
Eight wives, nineteen children, plus! That would definitely fit under the category of a blended family.
Only in our day has the actual term become commonly used. This term, blended family, has replaced the more common term of the past -- step families -- to describe a family unit in which a formerly married woman marries a formerly married man and there are "my" children and "your" children and sometimes also "our" children.
How prevalent is the blended family in American society today? One writer suggested that one in six children in America today is living in a blended family. Another writer estimates that 1,300 new blended families are being formed each day in the United States.
The truth we need to acknowledge, which is confirmed by the experience of many here today, is that not every blended family is the Brady Bunch. Blended families present those involved with some unique challenges. This is the second issue I want to deal with in my series on the family: the blended family.
Where do we begin in the church in dealing with the issue of blended families?
We begin by acknowledging that blended families are families too!
We often get stuck in the fifties and think of family only in terms of a nuclear family -- a father who works and a mother who stays home with two children. Actually, the nuclear family is only one form the family has taken over the centuries.
In the early days of the Old Testament, polygamy prevailed and family meant a man, all his wives, all of his servants (concubines) and all his children. In earlier generations of America, extended families often lived under one roof and family meant a man and woman, their children, and their children's children and sometimes brothers and sisters and cousins and pets!
During the first half of this century in America the most common pattern was the nuclear family, but now, as we approach the end of the century, only about 7% of our families today fit this pattern. Often in our day, we have single parent families which means a mom or a dad living alone with the children.
Ken Dycthwald, in his book AgeWave, has suggested a new kind of family which is becoming ever more common today. He calls it the matrix family. According to Dychtwald, these matrix families will be adult-centered, transgenerational, and will be bound together by friendship and choice as well as by blood and obligation
And then we have blended families, literally millions of them which are a part of American society today, a part of the family of faith called Richardson First Baptist. So we begin today with this affirmation: blended families are families too!
Blended families face unique challenges
