Sunday, May 08, 2005

Who do we thank?
a popular blog of mine from another place

Like me, I am sure most of you had an uncle, or even your father who said something like this. “Why when I was a youngster, I walked five miles through the snow to school each winter day.”

I chuckle a little because now I know the perfect thing to say when you hear something like that. “But, Uncle Dave, do you think your parents would have made you take that 5 mile trek each day, if they had a 300 hp four wheel drive sport utility vehicle sitting in the driveway?”

Each generation has a tendency to view the next generation as inferior in many ways. I guess this is human nature. Yes, you know I am telling the truth about this. Having said all of this, I want to talk about the upcoming generations, the leaders of tomorrow. And it isn’t pretty.

The youth of today are in trouble. It has nothing to do with laziness, ignorance or political views.

It has all to do with politeness, and more specifically the age old practice of thanking someone else when they do something for you. Most of the young people today, never say thanks. I have witnessed many occasions when a young person should have given thanks, but did not. It has puzzled me so much and I have thought about it a lot. I’ll give you two recent events in my life to bring this point out. I took my daughter and one of her friends to a big concert a few weeks back. I bought the tickets, they cost $80 each and as I handed one of the tickets to the friend of my daughter, I expected a thank-you. But no words of thanks were given. Here is another event of thanklessness. Not too long ago, after church I invited several people out with my family to a very nice restaurant, and paid the entire bill. The older couple I had invited, each thanked me in a sincere friendly way for asking them to dinner. The friend of my daughter, that I asked to eat with us, gave no thanks, none whatsoever, even though she heard the older couple thanking me.

I didn’t invite these people to dinner just to get thanked and boost my ego. I wanted to do it. It just rubbed me the wrong way. I have noticed young clerks taking my money at the cash register, and not thanking me. This irks me, maybe I am oversensitive about all of this, but I don’t think so. Politeness is rare amongst our young people. Now, let me be clear about this…….I am a thankful person, so my daughter is also a thankful young lady. My parents made certain that I knew, politeness is not optional, it is to be practiced. Amazingly, I learned that politeness is rather enjoyable, and I hope my daughter realizes this also.

When I notice my daughter being polite, let me tell you, I am as happy as a mortal can be. But my daughter is the exception today and not the rule.

I have thought hard and long about this situation, and want to share with you some of my reasoning……..as to why kids will not use that word, THANKS. If we correctly diagnose the problem, we may be able to do something to once again have polite and thankful children growing up amongst us.

Here are a few observations.

Society today, and our schools have failed our children. They have taken all of the things that make a person good and decent, and outlawed them. They have outlawed even the mention of God in public school. Even saying prayer at lunchtime is forbidden. God cannot be petitioned to protect the participants of sporting events at our schools. Valedictorians are not allowed to thank God, in the speeches they give.

If God is taken out of the human’s psyche, there is no reason to thank anyone for anything.

Imagine a world that has no God. Yes we are almost there, but not quite.

The sun peeking up over the snowcapped mountains, turns the dew on the roses in your garden to miniature rainbows, and as you walk among the lovely roses, you enjoy the sight.
What if you didn’t know who to thank?

What if the doctor handed you your healthy newborn baby girl, and you held her close to your bosom and wanted to thank someone, but there was no one to thank?

What if a miracle happened and your spouse, against all odds, beat a cancer that the doctors said would surely kill them? But there was no one to thank.

What if you are strolling on a cloudless spring night, and you turn your eyes toward the skies, and notice millions of stars gleaming in the sky, but you haven’t a clue as to who to thank for the magnificent sight?

I don’t care how advanced a society is, a society that had no one to thank, would be a miserable place to live. And here we get to the real reason I share all of this.

Teenage suicides are not rare anymore; it is just a sad fact of our day and age. Teenage, killers are numerous, like never before. In my own life, three members of my close family have been murdered by teenagers. Six years ago, two 14 year old boys, murdered my mother-in-law, and father-in-law in cold blood, in their home. Another teenager killed my younger brother twenty years ago. It would be easy to be like a turtle or clam, and clam up, hunkering down, and let it all play out. But that isn’t me.

Something, my friends, has caused all of this havoc and mayhem we see today amongst our young people. I sincerely want to help the young people, and have come to some conclusions.

All young people need someone to thank. Don’t delude yourself, young people want guidance, help, rules and someone to thank for the good feelings they have inside.

Here is the blame………..I give it freely and know I am right.

Our children are taught evolution in school. Not as theory, but as fact. There is no creator of this lovely universe. It just sort of happened. So there is no one to thank. You can’t thank a big bang happening in a black hole, billions of years ago, for the marvelous things of life?

The past is not important then. It just happened. No one is to be thanked, or praised.

So, there is nothing to gain by looking back in time.

What about time today?

Everything good is ignored by the media today, and we are bombarded 24/7 with the glorification of things like this. Child molesters are worshipped because they can sing and dance. Sports heroes are glorified even after they beat their wives, and are not punished. They can take illegal drugs, and still be glorified. Porn stars can talk at our schools, but not religious figures. Gay activist can insist that their books are in the libraries of our schools, but religious books are banned. If we send armies to free people in slavery, they are called killers, and the mass murderers are treated better today than those few still trying to help the people of the world. Life is worthless, because we can snuff it out like a cigarette, up until actual childbirth. Yes, abortion is one of the many things cheapening life, and promoting death. Remember the days when a woman was said to “be with child?” What a beautiful thought, a woman with child. Childbirth. All of this has been replaced today with death. Our young girls are told……if you don’t want the pregnancy,(if you don’t want the living child in your body) no problem…….and they are told, Your parents don’t need to know. Yes, we have cheapened life. Today life is cheap.
Recently we even saw the starving of an unwanted handicapped woman, life is cheap.

So you can see, there really isn’t anything to be thankful for concerning life today. Death is worshipped. Life is cheap. You don’t have to thank death, it takes care of it’s own.

What about the future? It is all bleak say the newspaper and TV people. Global warming will kill us all. Yeah sure, forty years ago it was the coming ice age that told us there would be no future for mankind. The ridiculous scenarios conjured up by the naysayers, about the future, give us nothing to be thankful about.

So our wonderful children are growing up with the past accidental, today insignificant and tomorrow endangered. There is nothing to be thankful about.

I am glad I was a child back in the days when there was something to be thankful about.

I was, and still am, thankful that my creator made this marvelous universe, and I can be thankful, and enjoy it.

I realize that my creator has given me life as I live it today, and I am thankful, very thankful that I am.

I know the future is marvelous, to those who thank the creator……..So let me go out on a limb and say this, Thank you God.

I’m praying for our young people.

Join me.

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