There was a time when...

There was a time when the telephone was anchored by a cord and we had to get up and answer it.  Now we have a cordless phone with caller id so we can ignore anyone we want without a guilty feeling.  There was a time when a board game such as checkers or chess was played on the dining room table.  Now I can play without another person when I am in line at McDonald's or waiting in my car for my family. There was a time when families would talk during the evening meal and relate the events of the day.  Now we go through the aforementioned McDonald's, wolf down the happy meal on the way to piano, sporting events or school functions.  There was a time when dodge ball and tag where played without fear or governmental oversight but to teachers who somehow knew how to keep a majority of kids safe.  There was a time when if a kid did get a scrap on the playground, they went to the school nurse for a little TLC and a band aid. 

There was time when God said to the parents of Israel they were to teach the basics of the faith when they walked, when they went to bed and when they got up the next day.  How can we do this when  everyone has a cell phone to text, play, listen to music and basically ignore the rest of the family.  Children under the age of twelve want their own cell phones.  Why?  So they can talk to their friends I am told.  We did that face to face forty years ago.  Toddlers and infants have their own cell phone which make noise and down the road they will ask, ask, ask their parents so they can be like the other kids.  They want a lap-top computer for school work.  Why?  I went through twelve years of public school, four years of college and a whole bunch of post grad school without one.  I did have two things I think are still around:  books and a library. 

There was a time honest and hard work brought you the rewards of your labor.  Today, more and more feel they are entitled to compensation without the struggle.  Perhaps the reward of labor was not the money or the things we purchased from that income, but the struggle in itself.  It taught us to not give up and seek the easy road.  Oh well!  I guess when I reflect like this I sound like by parents.  They were the greatest generation who conquered tyrants without a bit of second guessing.  They survived a depression worse than what we have here today.  Maybe we can learn something from the statement, "There was a time when...".

God's greatest task for parents is to raise Godly offspring according to Malachi.  Now this might require non-paid labor and it requires a face to face meeting called conversation.  How novel!  Parents and kids talking without a technological device.  What will this world do?