Raising children is like the egg and spoon
race. Just when you think you have been successful, the spoon seems to get
smaller and the egg less stable. Your attention shifts from the finish line to
the egg and back again. Distractions abound, twists and turns, bumps and
potholes.
But when you finally get them launched… your
concern still does not diminish. There is one thing that makes a parent’s heart
skip with joy. When a parent sees their children making wise choices; that
makes it all worthwhile.
I have had that joy repeated many times over
the last few years. My children continue to make wise decisions. This does not
mean I am not still concerned about them, but I am much less concerned than if
they were being fools.
One of the areas where we get into trouble
is the area of money. As a country we spend like it is air. There is no
concerted effort to face the inevitable consequences of an ever expanding debt.
Lord, forgives us for placing such a great burden on our children’s children’s
children. If we would just listen to the wisdom in verses like these!
Capitalism in its worst form makes winners
and losers, rich and poor, haves and have nots. That is because greed is the
motivating force, rather than service of others. In capitalism as is practiced
in the West, there is little sense of the common good. What is important is the
bottom line. What matters is the rate of growth.
If we would avoid laziness, things would be
much better. But now our system rewards laziness. We pay people to do nothing,
and incentivize them to continue to be unproductive.
God has called us to be productive. There
are times when the burden of work will be greater, like harvest time in an
agrarian society, summer time for construction, Thanksgiving to Christmas for
retail.
And our productivity reflects back to our
parents. It says something about our upbringing, and about our character. It is
an outward sign of an inward trait.