Are Consequences History?

A recent issue of the National Right To Life News included a quote from President Obama that in effect stated that if one of his daughters made a mistake he didn't want them to have to suffer the punishment of a pregnancy.

Well, where I come from mistakes have consequences. This is an absolute truth and it use to be an universal parenting truth.

Growing up, I knew what was right and wrong and I knew the consequence that would happen if I chose the wrong path. I was expected to share my toys, and if I decided to be selfish and chose not to share, I knew in short time that Mom or Dad would take the toy away from me. It was to my benefit to follow the rule.

The rules were given along with the consequences. Sometimes, I made a mistake and choose the wrong option and I suffered the consequence both of the damage from my choice and from the punishment that came along with that choice. The punishment is designed to curtail the same behavior from happening again in the future. It was to my benefit to follow the rules but if I didn't the punishment was there to make me think harder the next time I was faced with the same choices. The hope was not to make the same mistake twice because the consequence was not worth the pleasure of following my own stubborn will.

It use to be you all knew the one family in the neighborhood that parented differently than all the rest by allowing their kids to do whatever they wanted and always tried to help them avoid the consequences. You know the one. It usually was the home where all the kids wanted to hang out because anything goes. Well, the scale has tipped the other way and now the family in the neighborhood who practices rules w/ consequences is the lone ranger on the block. No kids want to hang out there because an above standard of behavior is expected and they would prefer to be unaccountable.

You know it's a very deeply embedded cultural shift when the President of the United States states for the whole world to hear that he does not want his daughters to suffer the consequence of a bad mistake. Fence sitters fall to the wrong side when the leader of the nation makes such statements.

Soon enough we will have removed all of the consequences and total anarchy will be the rule of the nation. No longer will there be any wrong choices. No longer will there be an universal standard to live up to. It will be a free for all, an acceptance of anything goes. We won't need jails anymore because consequences are no longer in place and there are no rules. I fear we will destroy ourselves from the inside and no rouge nation will be needed to bring down the great super power. A nation without consequence and an insatiable appetite for fulfilling it's own evil desires is a nation that is in the hands and control of Satan.

Does that scare you? It should.

The Bible teaches us the universal truths of God and when we ignore his word there is a consequence. We may be arrogant enough to think we can eliminate all of the consequences but we deceive ourselves. We cannot eliminate the eternal consequence of our sin which in death and suffering in hell for eternity. We do not have the power to do away with this consequence on our own. Only by the grace of Jesus can we avoid this consequence and it requires a relationship with the Living Lord.

Who will control you? Satan or Jesus? What will you instill in your children? To follow the world and all it's damning folly or to know right from wrong and understand consequences. A child who doesn't know how to surrender to the will of a parent or to understand that consequences are real will find it difficult to surrender their life to Jesus and we put their souls in peril.

Parents, don't get caught up in the world and it's foolishness. Look to the universal truths of God and instill them first in your character and then in your children's!