Modern Morality

2 Timothy 3: 1-4 …….. But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Standards have changed; the parameters have shifted. What was once unacceptable we have come to accept. Why is that?

One reason may be the change in our home lives. Many young people in this generation are growing up in homes where there is little or no parenting. Nowadays, everyone has easy access to all kinds of ‘entertainment’ through satellite TV, DVDs and the Internet. Consequently much of the ‘parenting’ input to our children comes from an unsolicited source of media junk.

The made-up lives of soap opera families have become the guidelines that we follow as though they were an insight into reality instead of being the acted-out drama from a persuasive script created in the mind of a production team.

Censorship and respect have all but disappeared. Gone are the days when the family would gather together at least once a day around the dinner table. A time when everyone would chatter away about what was going on in their lives – everyone listening and everyone contributing.

Nowadays, if we do come together it is very often around the TV; turned on, volume up competing for our attention. If the TV fails to distract us then our mobile phone will succeed when it demands a text response to some inane piece of nonsense from an unknown ‘friend’ on Facebook or Twitter.

This is not multi-tasking, this is simply bad manners. If our children or our peer group do not have the common decency to give each other their undivided attention (even for half-an-hour-once-a-day) then it is time that a few simple ground rules were put into place.

To start with; can we turn off ALL electronic equipment so that we can talk, uninterrupted, at meal times or at a pre-determined time for half-an-hour-once-a-day or at some points during the week? Can we have ‘family time’?

Call me old-fashioned, but if we do not make an effort to build relationships in our own family, how can we ever hope to teach our children to relate, honour and respect those around them. Let us begin to value the members of our own family with mutual trust and love for each other. This is achievable, we can do it…….

Lord Jesus, You give us your undivided attention because you love us and because you are interested in who we are. Amen.