Unpublished from 4 years ago...

I wonder if there is something in the air that our youngn's breathe? It wasn't there when I was a child (and now I am sounding like a grandmother). No-one ever told me that the Lord requires that we should rejoice always (and rejoicing is, necessarily going to result in thankfulness isn't it?) nor did anyone ever point out to me (not that I recall) that the Israelites in the wilderness demonstrated their disobedience, faithlessness, lily-liveredness (or whatever you want to call it) by COMPLAINING. However, my mother taught me to say 'please' and 'thankyou' and I did - along with most of my peers. Those who didn't were from a different culture (asian), we brits were habitually thankful. I thought that if I taught my children, as my mother taught me, that it was common decency to be generous with 'please' and 'thankyou', it would lead to them at least habitually using those words, even if they didn't 'come from the heart' - but it seems that the culture of death is a necessarily unthankful one and one, at least, of my children sees no inconsistency between not being an 'un-believer' and complaining bitterly about the character of his lunch.... He MAY grow out of it, but I don't remember any of my brothers (neither of whom is saved) ever indulging in such expressions of ingratitude - and if they had and it had been pointed out I think they would have been quick to pack it in. It's an interesting point because I wonder to what extent the culture we live in (even if our children don't have much access to it via TV, school, unsavoury non-family peers etc) actually gets into us.
It has application for all stages of life. The one which I fight against is 'time for myself'. You can bet my MOTHER never considered THAT one!!! Men in the workplace, no doubt, find integrity more difficult now than they would have done 30 years ago where, somehow, it was dis-agreeable to be crooked or a bully. If the product of the Christian home-ed movement are so influenced by the prevailing culture that they are dis-abled from being true and effective 'arrows' against the enemy, what hope is there??!!
Praise the Lord that He knows what He's doing and (as with the complaing Israelites) He will bring about His Glory - I just can't see how it can be done right now.....