will our children follow our teachings?

Speaking of children rebelling against their parents politics. 

That is one good reason that liberals should not have many children, and
conservatives should!
Claude Everett

Ah, if only it worked that way!!! 

I'm reminded of the story a Missionary once told.  He was preparing to leave home to go into another Land and save the Heathen.  As he opened the door of his house, his small son ran up and wrapped himself around his dad's leg.  Looking up into his father's face the small child sobbed, "Daddy, don't leave again!" 

The Missionary smiled down at his sweet baby and said, "But I must go out and tell people about Jesus Christ." 

The child began weeping and shouted out, "I Hate Jesus Christ!!!" 

 

We teach our children by our own priorities.  Too often we do not even realize the real lessons we are passing along.  My dad did not become a Radical because his mother was a Bible thumping Southern Baptist and an unmoving Lincoln Republican. 

The lessons she taught to him were that she cared more for that Sacred Book and her own Salvation than she cared for her children and the suffering of the people living in the logging and mining camps where my dad grew up. 

She sent a message that Prayer keeps us safe, and to Hell with everyone else.  Oh sure, that's not what she said.  Grandma would have been shocked to hear me say those words.  She believed that she was praying for all the suffering people.  But grandma did not raise a hand to protest the rough, uncaring treatment by the Bosses. 

 

In reflection, I did my children a disservice by spending so much time and energy away from home.  The message I provided to them was that they were not quite as important as the battles I fought.  Even though I thought I was making it clear to them that I was involved because the outcomes could impact them at a later time in their lives, they still received a sense that I was not taking their needs to heart.  

Of course my children all survived, as most of us do, and became everything I'd hoped they would become.  They did learn to stand up for themselves, to care deeply for the people around them...even my conservative daughter, and to actually be involved in life. 

 

Carl Jarvis