Our country is in the middle of choosing the next president, and over the next year a lot of advertising and speeches and debates will flood the airwaves to influence the public’s choice of who should be in the oval office.
The job of being President of the United States, is by nature a very prestigious job and it inherently comes with a high level of respect.
Amazingly, over the years our society and culture is engaging in behavior that chips away at respect for each other. You do not have to listen for very long to hear people from all backgrounds engage in very bad language and disrespect for others.
Sadly this has also saturated our political system with leaders slinging slurs and other unacceptable behavior and verbal abuse at each other.
As Christians, are we called to act differently from the rest of the world? Is our behavior and conversation to be like that of all the folks around us or are we called to stand out and distinguish ourselves because we behave with a character that is more in line with Jesus Christ?
People are easily recognized for exceptional behavior whether good or bad. Do we not try to teach children to model good behavior and show respect for other people. Are we setting the example by our own behavior? If not, how can that be changed?
Changing behavior is not easy, it never has been or will be. But it is not impossible to reintroduce new habits of better character.
The Bible is a great resource to remind all people of the proper behavior that sets you apart from the rest of the world. I find that the book of Proverbs teaches great wisdom of behavior for both adults and children. And the New Testament highlights exceptional behavior to others and especially other christians. The world desperately wants and needs to see better examples of behavior.
As individuals don’t we appreciate when someone seemingly goes out of their way to be nice and show extraordinary kindness? You see the thing is that what we see as extraordinary should be the norm.
I recall a time when thank you and please were common in our speech, and rude remarks were easily criticized. Our world has changed on such a drastic level that rudeness is seen as the new norm and even expected in some situations.
Our children are seeing some of the adults in our society behave in ways that we would not otherwise want them to duplicate. As adults we still have the mentor role to play in modeling good behavior to any child.
It has been said that it takes a “village to raise a child”, and I am a firm believer that some children do not have the great role model in the home and the only shining example of good behavior will come from outside of the home.
So, as a culture we can all vow to improve and work on our own behavior to reflect the model we want to see our kids become.
Furthermore, I think it is great to stand out above the crowded cesspool of low grade behavior that permeates all levels of our culture. We should take pride in being better than expected of the low standards that seem to be the new norm of our society. We can do much better and our children deserve to see the greatness of elevated behavior and speech in our culture.
I’m all in. How about you?