It was the other night, my husband showed me a video that is popular right now on YouTube. Someone had sent it to him on his phone & a co worker had mentioned it, I believe. Men were getting a kick out of this video. Can I just say I watched the whole thing, almost (I got bored close to the end), and barely cracked a smile. Here's why; I'm a thinker. And while I'm watching this, I'm wondering, why do men find this random guy who's joking about being lazy, gross, and a real "country boy", funny. Why is this plumb funny? I wish, for my husband's sake, that my mind would have stopped there. But instead I go on to think out loud while we're washing dishes together.
"Honey, if I were to think of all the crude, embarrassing things about my gender and joke about being a lazy mama, or a raw "country woman" would you laugh?"
This question came with a demonstration, I'll spare the details. He laughed, but so did I, simply at the thought of something like that spiraling all over YouTube and women passing it along. But my point was, our generation is sad. We have declined in so many ways, including our humor. People don't grow up anymore. They recess. The more crude, exposing, gullible, or child-like they become the more our generation applauds them. The more that behavior tickles our funny bone.
My thoughts did not stop there, I'm afraid....
This is why people don't have strong leaders in their home. Men (and women) are not taught to grow up, to say excuse me after belching and mean it. It's funnier to be gross and demoralizing. Where does this lead? To 40 year old men who have a mature mind & therefore know how to use it to be more immature than children. I can't help but think of Will Ferrell, sorry. Seriously though, he is known as one of the top comedians in movies simply for taking rolls that portray a grown man as completely ignorant & degrading. He will gain money and laughs, be popular with the younger, ignorant generation but when he's 60 dear friends, will he have earned a reputation that anyone ever truly respects? And if any respect, what kind? Friends, these are men that younger ones are looking to.
Think about actors in the older days, and the way the black and white movies portrayed fathers. They were not men who said stupid things, degraded their children, & bad mouthed the opposite sex. They were men that sat around the table with their family, guided their children, kissed their wife, and were portrayed as the ones with wisdom. Boys looked forward to one day being a man! The things their sweet mama enforced as far as opening doors for women, saying excuse me, working hard, & washing behind their ears were simply part of becoming a man. Part of growing...maturing. We are in a generation where men do not grow up, nor girls for that matter. Instead of being taught, by men older than themselves, to pull up your pants and wear a belt if need be, rather show your underwear & lose all worth. It's more than a fad, folks, it's where "adults" have allowed morals to go. Respect for life, dignity, self worth, and the opposite gender is trampled under foot. Men get selfish & decide it's not worth providing for a family any longer, so boys get selfish and quit caring about their pants. Really. Women get tired of taking care of everybody and decide to quit the family so she can go find herself, and so girls decide marriage is not worth it & they'll just play house without the God ordained commitment.
As we talked about this my husband went on to say some things that I passionately believe are worth recording.
What is wrong with sons doing what their fathers did for a living? In the old days you would hear about 4th and 5th generations of block layers, and they were good at it! But now, the almighty dollar is worshipped. Somehow making lots of money will exempt you from a life of problems. When did the bible ever portray hard work as a bad thing? Jesus himself was born into a carpenter's home; which back then was more work than today, and I'm sure they were good at it! Jesus was taught to work hard in his early years by Joseph. Whose footsteps are we following on this earth anyways? Am I suggesting all boys need to be a carpenter? Why, no. My point is we give our children nothing to go in life with but a head full of making money. There are good, strong homes to where the dads only concern is that his son go to college. And these statements usually proceed that thought, "so you won't have to work hard like I have..." "You're smart enough to make good money..."
Never mind the child's God given talents, passions, or simply God's plan for His life, just mind the almighty dollar.
Here's my prayer with our boy right now, our only boy, that in all of life, no matter what God has Him doing, that He would bring glory to God. My greatest hope for all my kids, is that they love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. This is first and foremost....this is my desire above math, above good manners, above instilling morals. This is what I give them to take in life, not a head full of how to make lots of money, but a heart, soul, mind and strength that is sold out to Christ. Because in that, no matter what they find themselves doing whether a carpenter, doctor, homemaker, janitor, etc, God will have them covered above and beyond what their needs could ever be. A bank account full of money does not guarantee them safety & peace.....only God alone does this.
I suppose my husband's and I's point in this conversation is that it seems fathers do not give them this sole purpose above anything, they just send them out into the world to make lots of money. I pray this never becomes our purpose with our kids...but that we have given our lives as a sacrifice to instill, above all else, Christ alone. Because in this, we leave them the greatest inheritance they could ever have. And that by walking with the Lord, and making it more than just our religious practices but our life, that we also grow with Him into real men and women that gain the wisdom that is so desperately needed in our generation.
Blessings, friends.
<3 <3 <3
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