Forty years married to an abusive husband! I couldn't believe it! Why did she stay? Because she had nowhere else to live. He allowed her a room in the house with him, but gave her no money for food or any other necessities. These she bought with her scant Social Security money and the winnings from playing bingo.

Later, I listened to another woman's account of twenty years with an alcoholic husband. Then there was the man who told about the beatings and physical injuries given to him by his father. A young husband lamented that his wife had walked out on him because of the scars left in her life by a father who sexually molested her.

I hear stories like these so regularly that I begin wondering if anyone has a "normal" (whatever that may be) home-life anymore. I also find myself almost wanting to apologize that I had loving, Christian parents, a husband who affirms me and children who care.

If you're in any kind of ministry, you know what I'm talking about. Families are falling apart all around us in society and within the church. Children are inheriting a legacy of violence which they are living out and passing on to the next generation, making the future of our country look pretty bleak.

If there were ever a time when we need help for families and children it is now. People need healing; but most of all, they need to meet the Great Healer. What an opportunity we have for evangelism! But this type of evangelism may not be what we are familiar with. It takes special sensitivity and grace to present Christ as the answer to people's family and relational problems.

May God give us the strength and wisdom to tell the world about the One who "will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).

Patricia Maxwell, a gifted writer and speaker, has served in various ministry capacities in California and Hawaii.