God believes in family. He sent Jesus into this world as a baby and therefore totally reliant on his earthly mother and father and He invites us to be a part of his eternal family, writes Dr Robert Glover, founder and executive director of Care for Children. 

1 June is the Global Day of Parents, and while awareness days are observed in different ways (and many of us are ready for one of the biggest observations in history this week), for me this is an important time to remember the call God has given us all to look after children.

Many child psychoanalysts believe that mental health and behavioural problems can be attributed to early childhood experience. Developmental psychologist John Bowlby’s pioneering theory of attachment suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others because this will help them to survive. His findings suggested that where there is maternal deprivation children often developed mental and physical disabilities, and sometimes even die.

What Bowlby didn’t explain is how children are pre-programmed. However, we know from Psalm 139 that God knitted us together in our mother’s womb; He fearfully and wonderfully made us. The family roles in a child’s development are God-ordained; it is His purpose for children to be dependant and reliant on parents in order to survive and thrive into adulthood.

In 1993, at my local church in Guernsey, I was given a prophetic call from God that would shape the rest of my and my family’s life. I’ve since worked for over 20 years with the nation of China and set up Care for Children, trusting God’s call to place children into local, loving families.

When I first moved to Shanghai in 1998, there was no word in Mandarin or Cantonese for “family-based care”, and millions of children were living in orphanages, deprived of the love of a family.

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