Reaching back for today's solutions
When I was a boy, we didn’t hear about rights; we heard about duties. Every man worth his salt believed he had a destiny, something he was supposed to do to leave the world a better place. Women felt the same way, and wives added that their first job was to stand beside their husband so he could become all he was supposed to be, and added sacrificial labors so that her family could become substantial, righteously serving citizens. People thought first of serving and giving, not striving and getting.
Chores were necessary for survival. If I didn’t milk the cows, care for the chickens and our big garden, we didn’t eat! My friends lived and served the same way. We learned, day by day, to labor for others, and most of us learned to love serving sacrificially. Today, we wouldn’t want to take away the labor-saving devices that have turned women’s lives from drudgery to fun, but the flip side of those benefits is that our children so often grow up feeling useless, and too seldom learn to love laboring to help others.
Neighbors used to help each other, necessarily, and there was often a sense of corporate belonging and loyalty. Now, I hardly know my neighbors — modern devices have made us feel so independent that we don’t any longer believe the necessity of having good neighbors.
There was a man who looked in the mirror and cried out, “My God! What the heck happened?” Many of us in the older generation feel like we have looked in America’s mirror and want to cry out, “My God! What the heck happened?” It’s not all been bad, never was, and won’t be, but the problems are too big and too many for one short letter to the editor, but here’s a few thoughts:
1. Get to know your neighbors. Shovel someone else’s driveway while doing your own.
2. When we were kids, it was drilled into us to respect authority, and never to speak disrespectfully of anyone in authority. My parents said, “If you get a spanking in school, you’ll get another one at home. Don’t let me ever hear of you badmouthing a teacher.” Today, we are actually proud when we badmouth the president, or anyone in public office, as though we have done our duty. Stop that insolent foolishness! A wise old country man once said, “If’n ya cain’t say somethin’ good about someone, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”
3. Stop clamoring and marching for rights you never should have had in the first place! God has never given us the right to divorce, except for adultery — and that only after copious efforts to redeem and save the marriage. Hear this, you women who say, “I’ve got a right to my own body.” Your unborn child also has a right to life, more important than yours! Your husband has a right to his child. Your parents and his have rights as well. Even for rape or no intention to conceive out of wedlock, God has never given you the right to dispose of a child, never a right to murder. Be all out for good rights, but let’s stop clamoring for rights God has never given us.
4. Learn to enjoy your job. Stop being a center of dissension at work. God’s Word tells us we are commended and commendable if we serve overbearing bosses without complaint.
5. Respect your flag. Salute, and be the best citizen you can be. The list goes on. You add to it.
In short, love and serve, and you can’t go wrong. The world needs, above all, people who love and cheerfully bless all around them.
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John Loren Sandford is founder of Elijah House, Inc., in Coeur d’Alene.