By: D. A. Slinkard
The other day I was with my girls at an activities event for kids their age. There was a motivational speaker who made the comment that everyone in the room was a winner, and everyone would be getting a participation award for competing in the competition. He went on to say, “There is no such thing in life as losers” and that everyone would get an award for the day but not everyone would get a trophy. I am all for motivational speakers because I want to motivate people to think positive in order to change their life with each article I write.
I guard the amount of garbage my girls take in because we live in a wicked world. The world wants us to believe we should listen to our hearts, but the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked….” In life there will be winners and there will be losers. Sometimes the losers will win and the winners will lose, but to think you are a winner because you say so is the wrong mentality. There will be failures in life, and if we teach kids they are always winners, they will not be able to recognize failure. What good does that do?
We have made the world we live in to be one in which our children are content with just showing up and getting a participation award. This has trickled into the “real world” with people thinking that they are entitled to something for nothing. Wrong! Parents, you need to wake up and start teaching your kids; stop letting social media, YouTube and the Internet do your parenting for you.
Speaking of getting something for nothing, who would have thought socialism would be gaining steam in our country? Yet here we have this idea being touted about; but do a little research on what is happening in Venezuela to understand its effect on a country. Not good but sad we have people listening to the talking points of politicians and they fall hook, line and sinker.
The other thing we need to do is bring back some standards for the way we live our lives. Recently there was a Notre Dame student’s mother who wrote a letter urging women to dress more modestly. Seems like a plausible thing; but instead, this lady was met with backlash. Whether you read the Bible or not, I will either remind or inform you of 1Timothy 2:9, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel…” All these folks getting mad at this lady, and you may be reading this getting upset with me — but neither she nor I wrote the Bible. God wrote it, and 2 Timothy 3:16 shows us that every scripture is inspired by God and written by God through man. We truly live in a wicked world that is growing further away from our moral compass.
How we fix this is to stop listening to the way of the world. We need to dust off our Bibles and read what God says about it. The Bible needs to be our final authority in life. I sadly realize, though, that this is where the issue comes into play because we have grown accustom to living in our sinfulness and walking contrary to God’s Word. We see this with the misguided ideology taking place in our society in which there is a world of confusion, a lack of honesty, and worry about who gets offended.
Worrying about offending others has led us down the rabbit hole we are in. Some people do not know what gender they are or what bathroom to use, and they cannot fathom that abortion is murdering an innocent life. The most important thing we could do would be to help our kids learn to think for themselves.
Next, start diving into God’s Word and tune out the world. As 2 Chronicles 7:14 states, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Instead of worrying about being winners in life, it is time to be winners in our Holy God’s eyes. If we cannot see failure in our spiritual life, we cannot see our need for Jesus as our Savior, which is why we have the problems we have today. We live in a society that ignores the God of the Bible.
By: D. A. Slinkard
D. A. Slindard is the manager of the Athens Staples store
