"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me"
(Respect Aretha Franklin). I've heard this song many times but I've never
thought much about this particular lyric until recently. I love children. I
really do because they have amazing curiosity, kindness, love for life, etc.
But children, and people, have changed.
We could blame the change on many different things:
society, technology, morals, etc. But that's not why I'm writing this blog. I'm
writing this blog for 2 reasons. The first is so people realize the changes in
people/children, we will get to the second reason later.
Today children do not listen to those in authority, do
not have patience, need instant gratification, whine, and ask why rather than
trusting those in authority.
When I was younger I, and I'm sure many of you as well, listened to those in authority. Sure sometimes I failed to
listen to my parents or teachers but I did the best I could to please my
elders. Today children do not want to respect others no matter who that person
is. They use the excuse of "we don't get any respect so why should we give
it?"
Children do not have patience and need instant
gratification. We could blame technology and say that whenever children want an
answer or want to win something all the need to do is turn to technology. They
have an ideal that they should win something even if they lose because we have
participation awards.
If children do not get what they want they whine. If they
get an answer they do not like they ask "why?" Rather than being okay
with the answer they got from the person in authority.
Now I understand that we want children to be curious,
want them to work hard, we want them to question things. But this has been
taken way too far.
We are headed down a path that we may not be able to come
back from. This path of selfishness and no patience because we want what we
want and we want it now. This path of "I deserve it." You don't
deserve anything but death (blog link)! This path of disrespect where we only
think of ourselves and do not care about others' feelings.
This is when we get to the second reason why I wrote this
blog... see I made you wait and have patience ;) Thus far this blog has been
pretty pessimistic but, just like in life, there is hope. We can change this
path. We can choose to go down a different trail.
How can we do this? We can say no to kids and people.
Thus making those people realize that they do not deserve everything and making
them work hard for themselves. We can stop giving participation awards and
instant gratification. This makes people work hard for what they earn and work
even harder to get that award again. We can disciple people and teach them
right from wrong. This will help immensely with the disrespect problem if
rewards are given for doing the right thing and taken away for doing the wrong
thing.
Above all else we must come along side people, lean on
God, and pray. This path has already been paved and it's not going to be easy
to turn around and change direction unless we are all working together toward
this goal. We must keep one another accountable and help children who may not
have good role models. And, when it seems hopeless, we must trust that God has
a plan.
So, have you seen this path that people and children are
going down? Are you willing to make these changes so that children's lives can
be better? Will you come along side others, be a role model, and trust in God?
Matthew 5:16. Romans 12:12, Philippians 2:4
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