Doin' Whats Right

“Dear Mom and Dad,” the letter began in a very ordinary way. Billy Joe was just finishing his freshman year at the university. Mom and Dad were excited that he would soon be home for the summer. As Dad read the letter in the easily recognizable but barely legible writing of his young son a picture dropped out of the envelope, a picture of a very lovely young woman. The parents’ smiles turned into a line of worry as they read further. “This is Lisa.,” Billy wrote. “We met at freshman orientation. I knew you wouldn’t approve but we really fell for each other and shared an apartment this last semester. She is a neat girl and, after all, you know two can live as cheaply as one. Ha ha, ha. I will bring her home so you can meet her. I know you will just love her. Love, Billy Joe” They have not discovered what Will Rogers said fifty or sixty years ago, “ . . . Sure two can live as cheaply as one as long as one don’t eat.”

Our society has broken down many of the taboos that our older generation grew up under. The common place in dress and social activity is the abnormal and even reprehensible of even two generations ago. Parents, have you watched the TV shows your children are watching? You should; you would get your eyes open and maybe know why your child has become so stubborn and rebellious against authority. The “children” played by at least 20 + year old actors are in charge. Mothers and dads are, at best. “In the way;” at worst they are shown as mentally incompetent.

Although there are many men and women who dress tastefully, who save their love for marriage and who honor father and mother as scripture dictates. There are many more young and older women who dress in public without modesty. It really does not matter that everyone is doing it.

There is hope. Every generation experiences youthful rebellion against the morals and mores of their elders. My parents could not stand Frank Sinatra … that is the truth. Old Blue Eyes was the one who would lead us to hell. My generation was turned off by hard rock. As to dress, each generation wears their own uniform. They very carefully dress alike while arguing that they are different. There is conflict in many churches over whether they will play old hymns or worship choruses. The great preacher and hymnist John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace had the same criticism. As they say, all music was new once.

Okay. What you do is your business. Yes? It is unless you claim to be a Christian. God has given us the playbook for living, if you let the Bible be your guide there are a lot of things you won’t do, not necessarily because they are illegal but because you may cause another to follow the wrong path. All that we do should be done to please our Lord. Ask yourself not what would Jesus do, but what does Jesus think?