We have lost our way...

So I explained the other day how, for the first 200 years of this nation, we put our priorities in the right order. We put God first, Country second, Spouse, Children, other people, other things, and then somewhere down the line... self.  So adults were not concerned with self.

And then the push came to change the definition of marriage so that people could put their own selfish desires before their nation.  It suddenly became more important for two homosexuals to get married than to protect and preserve the Constitution.  This never would have happened prior to the 1960s.  

Glenn Beck said it best.  He said:

These times have been foretold, and you don’t have to be a genius to figure out what the problems are in the country.  It’s because our society, our people, us, have become lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to our parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman.

We’re slanderers. We’re haters of good. We’re treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure much more than lovers of God. [We're] holding the form of religion, but denying the power of it.

Too many of us are blind (to the problems in the country... but) “it is the simple that will confound the wise.

We’ve closed our hearts. We’ve closed our eyes.  Almost everything has become like that homeless guy that you walk by on the street and you just don’t look at. … We don’t see things anymore. Because if we see things, it requires us to do something. And too many of us don’t know what to do.

I don't know how you can word it better than that.  I don't just want to pick on those who pushed for gay marriage, because there's a lot more going on that just that.  There are people who get divorced because they value their own happiness over the happiness of their children.  I mean, I could go on...

Believe it or not, there are things in this world that are more important than us, there are things more important than you or me.  Today people put themselves first, and everything gets all out of whack. It's all messed up.  Everybody is on edge.  Even those who are celebrating today know something is wrong with how they won.  There is this guilt.

And those who were on the losing side feel like they are getting their faces rubbed in the mud.  You have Christians being called bigots.  It's just terrible.  This has a rotten taste about it.  I'm not talking about gay marriage, I'm talking about how it was done and how it is being rubbed in.

We used to be united as a nation.  Now we are divided by groups.

We have lost our way...

Further reading:

• Beck Says the Past 10 Days Have Been a ‘Slapping of God’s Face’ Unlike He Has Ever Seen
• The Constitution is something special
• Gay marriage is legal: now what?
• 22 myths about gay marriage

Here's why Christians oppose gay marriage

Tensions are growing since the Supreme Court's controversial decision to make gay marriage the law of the land.  Proponents of gay marriage can still be heard celebrating, and for good reason.  Still, there are many Christians who feel the celebrations are a way of rubbing in their faces that of which they did not want to happen.  This has left many Christians questioning their faith, and why they were against gay marriage in the first place.

So, why is it we support marriage between a man and a woman, and why are we opposed to gay marriage? 

Dan Calabrese, a columnist for the North Star Writer's Group, explains why Christians don't support gay marriage in his column, "A detailed explanation of why Christians don't support gay marriage." I will use this as a reference for the following, although I will also add some of my own thoughts. 

1.  First it should be known that Christians believes that the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God. That’s why, when we cite the Bible, we treat it as authoritative.

2.  The Bible clearly defines marriage as between a man and a woman.  (Genesi 2: 23-2)(Matthew 19: 4-6)(Mark 10: 2-9)

3.  The Bible clearly sates that homosexual life is a moral sin with a penalty. Loving Christians want to see gay people spared of the pain of that penalty.  (Romans 1: 24-28)(Leviticus 20: 10-18)

4.  God is very stern with people who participate in sexual immorality. This is because when you unite with them physically you unite with them spiritually. He wants you to unite spiritually with one other person of the opposite sex of whom you are married.  (Leviticus 20: 10-18)

5. God explains that the reason for laws is for sinners, which includes sodomy (sex with an animal) and fornication (sex outside of marriage).  Timothy 1: 8-11

6.  We are all born into sin, and we are all tempted by our own desires, and we must resist these temptations to avoid the pain of punishment.  (James 1: 14-15)

7.  Liberals believe that people are born perfect and are corrupted by society.  So they believe the way to get the individual back to perfection is to do battle with society.  This explains why they battled so hard to change the definition of marriage.  

8.  Conservatives believe, as the Bible teaches, the people are born flawed, and the way to improve society is through the moral improvement of the individual.  They believe that to make society better you have to start with the individual.  

9.  Now, this is what the Bible says it is not me.  The following quote is from Calabrese.  "For the homosexual who says, “I was born this way,” I will not argue. We were all born with sinful urges of our flesh. Some struggle with anger. Some struggle with heterosexual lust. Some struggle with gluttony or addiction to alcohol. And some struggle with homosexual urges. These are our desires. They come from the flesh and they war against the spirit."

10.  "God’s desire for each person is that they will repent of those desires and surrender to Him so that He can deliver them from these urges by the power of Christ."

11.  "The Christian who loves as God loves certainly does not a hate another human being for having sinful desires of the flesh. We have them too"  So you can see that Christians love our gay brethren as all others. 

12.  Christians, however, recognize these thoughts as sinful, and so they resist the temptation.  They feel guilty when they have these thoughts.  This is God saying, "Stop!" 

13.  We must resist such sinful temptations so we can be right with God. Life is full of temptations, and every attempt at resisting them makes us a better person.  We are rewarded with blessings in our lives.  One such reward is a better society.  In other words, we make society better by resisting temptations.  

14.  The more people who resist temptations, the better society will be.  So society is made better one individual at a time. 

15.  This explains why there is a constant effort to improve the moral standard of the individual through the Church.  It is a constant battle.  We must never quit. 

Now, to tackle the modern issue of gay marriage, Calabrese said: 

I understand why some Christians struggle with this. They know a gay person, or maybe have a gay family member, and they want that person to be happy. It’s enticing to accept the “love is love” argument and to believe that surely God wants that gay person to be in a loving relationship.

But that argument wrongly conflates love with sex. There are a lot of different kinds of love. Hopefully you love a lot of people, but you only have sex with one person - the one to whom you’re married. If you want a gay person to know love in a romantic/sexual relationship, good, so do I. So I will pray that this person is delivered from those urges through the blood of Jesus so that he or she can find the mate of the opposite sex that God always intended for them to come together with.

Still, it must be added that all people have a right to choose the lifestyle the wish to live.  It must be understood, however, that Christians also have this right.  And to choose to be a Christian does not mean that we do not love and respect all our fellow men and women, all of whom we wish the best for.

Further reading:

• A detailed explanation of why Christians don't support gay marriage," by Dan Calabrese
• The Church will survive gay marriage if... National 
• Gay men blow kisses, taunting guy in ‘Ask Me About Jesus’ shirt; watch his reaction
• The Next Gay Marriage Battle: National Review

Traditional integrity is the key to success

Thoughts may come and go, but integrity is forever: Forbes.com

Through most of history, morals were set forth by society, religions or cultures.  They were etched in stone -- like the ten commandments -- and it was expected of you to follow these morals.

If you did, you were considered to be a person of high integrity.  In this case you were respected and adored.

If you did not, you were considered to be a person of low integrity, and you were considered to be an immoral person. In this case you were disrespected and disgraced.

Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review, wrote an excellent article about integrity recently called "Empty Integrity" that appears in the November 17, 2014, issue of National Review. He described the definition of integrity has been conveniently changed by some in our society so that it no longer holds any meaning.

By providing the traditional and modern definitions of integrity we can best understand how the term has evolved to become, as Goldberg said, essentially empty integrity.

Traditional Integrity:  It's a person who follows the moral code. As I wrote in a previous post, morals are etched in stone, and are handed down from generation to generation. A good example is the Ten Commandments: I will not steel, I will not commit adultery, I will not lie, etc. It's a person who is virtuous, honest, trustworthy, fair, and sincere. It's not just doing the right thing, it's wanting to do the right thing. Key to note here that a person with integrity cannot be corrupted. An example Goldberg gives is George Washington: "I cannot tell a lie."

A good example, one that I give and not Goldberg, is Bill Clinton. He was in the oval office and was approached by a good looking female intern. She seduced him, or he seduced her, and she ended up giving him a blowjob. By the traditional sense of integrity, this was an immoral act that a person with integrity would not do. Clinton may have been taught Christian morals, but he failed to act upon them. He became corrupted. He therefore became disrespected and disgraced, as least by those who follow the traditional definition of integrity, as most people still do.

After God, Goldberg said, the exemplars of integrity are the Angels. Because of free will, most humans cannot have perfect integrity, and the ones who become the closest were referred to as Knights in the middle ages, or as heroes in the modern sense. In this sense, people with high integrity are people who put God before nation and nation before themselves. They put other people first, and themselves second. In other words, they have their priorities in the right order. So the exemplars of traditional integrity would justly be called heroes.

Traditional integrity, for most of history, was the only kind of integrity.  It was the desire to follow the moral code, to create a set of values based on this moral code, and to willfully act on this moral code.

However, there are those in society today who have created a new definition of integrity.

Modern Integrity:  Because of free will, man may fall short of traditional integrity, and therefore morals should be determined by each person. Since morals are created by the individual, morals and values would essentially be the same thing.  So, in this sense, when you see people referring to morals and values as one and the same, you know you are talking to someone who champions for this modern definition of integrity.

So, while heroes may, in the traditional sense, refer to people who did good out of the desire to do good.  But by the modern definition, if morals can change from one person to another, even a person who did bad could be considered a person of high integrity so long as he was following the moral code he created for himself.  So, by this modern definition, what Bill Clinton did was not bad because he was following his own moral code. He was doing what he thought was good for himself.

In this sense, so long as he was following his own moral code, any bad person could be considered a person with integrity.  He is a person who is consistent, true to himself, and loyal to himself,  The problem with this type of integrity is that it may lead the slippery slope that is caused by love of self over love of team.

Goldberg uses Walter White, the main character in the television program "Breaking Bad" as a good example here.  He said:

White was a chemistry teacher–turned–drug kingpin and mass murderer. The show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, explained that the idea for the show was to turn “Mr. Chips into Scarface.” Gilligan succeeded, but not before he seduced and corrupted the viewing audience, too: By the time the story ended, fans no longer minded that Walter White had become a homicidal drug dealer. They rooted for him anyway.

Another example he gives is the television program "Dexter."  He said:

Then there’s the series Dexter, in which an avowed psychopath/serial killer adheres to an ethical code that he actually labels “The Code.” It’s his personal rulebook, which says that it’s okay to murder — with psychosexual delight, even — so long as the people you are murdering are also murderers. That might sound like a modern adaptation of old-school morality, except it doesn’t take long for Dexter to cut himself some slack and start killing innocent-but-inconvenient people as well.

So you can see that some people have changed the definition of integrity in order to justify what used to be considered immoral actions, such as getting a divorce, or having sex in the oval office when you are president of the United States and married.  By the new definition, such behaviors are okay and not out of the ordinary. Such actions are acceptable so long as that person was being true to himself.

Yet it doesn't take a genius to realize that this new definition is not conducive to a functioning society, as each person would simply decide for himself what was right and what was wrong.  You would have no stability in this world, as people would take actions based on their own selfish desires.

The founding fathers (as we know from their own writings, Merri) endorsed Christianity because they yearned for traditional integrity, whereby an unchanging moral code was inculcated into the minds of children, who were trained to willfully act in a manner that was in compliance with that code.  In this way, Americans would continue to place their priorities in the right order, and would be less likely to sacrifice for selfish gain.

The duties of men

All men have certain duties they must perform in life, wrote W. Cleon Skousen in "The 5,000 Year Leap" There are basically two types of duties, which the founding fathers would refer to as unalienable duties. We are all indebted to these duties to keep society together.

There are essentially two duties

1. Public duties: You should be moral when serving the general public. They are usually supported by local and state ordinances which can be enforced by the police power of the state. These are principles of public morality.

2. Private duties: Those that exist between the individual and his creator. These are principles of private morality, and the rules are created and enforced by the individual. You may create any private rules for yourself so long as they do not supersede your public duties.

A good example here is drinking. Say you like to drink. If you drink at home you can drink as much as you want and act how you want. Yet once you are out in public, you will need to obey your public duties. If you do not, public laws will deal with you.

Here are some examples of duties as provided by Cleon:

1. Honor God
2. Not to kill
3. Not to steal
4. Not to destroy another person's property
5. Not to trespass
6. To respect other people
7. Children must honor their parents
8. Parents must do right by their children
9. To support laws to keep peace
10. Help the helpless
11. To honor contracts (pay your debt)
12. Not to get angry
13. To be economically self-sufficient
14. Keep your family together
15. For married men not to seek out other women
16. No treat all races equal
17. To vote
18. To participate in public office if you're called
19. To study and learn and keep informed
20. Not to participate in a crime
21. To be moral and virtuous

Good ethics, the backbone of a functioning society

According to dictionary.com, ethics are the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, or culture.  Worded another way, ethics are morals and values that govern a person's behavior.

I discussed morals and ethics in a previous post.  In review, morals are the rules that differentiate right from wrong.  A perfect example here are the Ten Commandments.  Morals never change, and are handed down from generation to generation.  Values are rules set by an individual person, and can be influenced by morals.  Examples of values include Respect, Honor, Humility, Patriotism, Compassion, Honesty, Fairness, and Innovation.

Now let us define ethics.

Ethics:  These are moral principles and values that govern a person's behavior. Since good ethics are essential to a productive society, it's essential to inculcate a good set of morals, and encourage a strong set of positive values.

So being ethical is following your morals and values, but it is also following the laws created by your society. People with the right morals and values are very likely to also follow the laws, which is why nearly every successful civilization has grown around some form of religion.

This was yet another reason that the founding fathers believed it was so important to make room for Christianity in the newly formed nation.  It was the morals inculcated by the Church that they knew were important for creating the stable environment essential for a functioning society.

Since Christianity teaches the morals needed to encourage values needed for a functioning society, the founding fathers believed it was important to raise children under the influence of God and the Bible.

It worked, as the moral fabric of this nation was held firmly in place until the 1960s, when progressives started to succeed in changing American tradition.

What are morals and values

We often say that morals and values are essential to a productive society. I thought it would be a good idea to investigate these two terms in order to learn what they really are, and why they are important.

The best way to start this investigation is to define these two terms.

1.  Morals:  Rules that differentiate right from wrong.  They are ethics that have already been decided for us by society or by the religious or cultural organizations we prescribe to.  Examples of morals:

• Stealing is bad
• Lying is bad
• Abortion is bad
• Adultery is bad
• Being polite is good
• Being honest is good
• Helping people is good
• Being faithful is good
• Marriage between a man and a woman good
• Being faithful to your wife is good

Morals do not ever change, and are handed down from one generation to the next. They are operated upon by a person's conscience.  They sit in a niche within a person's mind, and operate as a voice to guide a person to follow them.  To not listen to that voice may result in guilt and displeasure, and possibly punishment.

2. Values:  These are rules set by an individual person, and can be influenced by morals, family, culture, background, and upbringing.  Personal values that we create for ourselves establish an internal reference whereby we decide what is good or bad, what is useful or not useful, what is beautiful or ugly, what is desirable or not desirable, what is constructive or not constructive, and what is friendly or what is not friendly, etc. They determine your behaviors toward different people and circumstances.  For example, if you believe gays or women are inferior, you may treat them as inferior.  If you love and respect gays and women, you may treat them with love and dignity. Examples of values include:

• Respect
• Honor
• Humility
• Patriotism
• Compassion
• Honesty
• Fairness
• Innovation

While morals and values are not one and the same, they work together to determine the path a person will take in his life.  They determine what actions he will take, and can even influence his general well being and what type of person he will become.

The maturation of morals and values

I always contend that it's important for our kids to learn the truth in school, and that includes when it comes to truths that we don't necessarily agree with. One of the best examples all time when it comes to avoiding the truth is when it comes to morals, virtues and religion.

This goes for both the right and the left. It's quite apparent that many on the left try adamantly to get Jesus out of schools. They don't want anything that has to do with Christianity to be mentioned, including God, Jesus and even Christmas. Hence the term "Holidays" is used. This is true even togh Holiday is in reference to a "Holy-day."

We hear in the news almost daily how holy days are turned into politically correct days. Yet what we don't hear about is the truth about the moral and virtue shift. A perfect example here is that in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, where the weather was fairly warm, it was normal to walk around naked and have people not even do a double take.

Yet it was also considered normal to be gay (but they didn't call it that), for a man to have a boy lover, for a man to seek prostitution, to have out of wedlock children, and to abort an unwanted boy or girl. In fact, a man was more likely to be seen in public with his boy child rather than with his wife.

Pederasty was an accepted and universal institution in the Greek world. This doesn't imply Greek men were homosexual (it doesn't prove they weren't either), because a majority of men were married, had normal sex relations with their wives, with slave girls, and with courtesans at times. Yet the woman stayed home and took care of the kids, and were ready when her husband was ready to have sex. Her job was to take care of the home, cook, make kids and take care of them. (1)

Because a woman stayed at home, a man was more likely to be seen in public with his adolescent boy lover than his wife. Yet he would take care of his boy, and he'd mentor him and make sure he grew up to be a productive member of society.

Henry Sigerist, who wrote "A History of Medicine," contends that the sexual frustrations of adolescent boys did not exist in antiquity. As soon as a boy was ready he was allowed to have sex. In fact, in Sparta boys were encouraged to go out and rape a girl, but if he got caught he was whipped. This was standard and accepted practice. (1, 2)

War was common in the ancient world, and to a soldier far from home it was normal to seek satisfaction by a prostitute. This was also common in Ancient Egypt, and if a child was born it was okay because extra hands were always needed. Yet in Ancient Egypt 8 out of 10 babies were not born alive, and therefore nature was the most common form of contraception. Plus many kids died before they reached the age of two due to diseases they were highly susceptible to.

Homer mentions relations between men, although this was most common during periods of war. Alexander the Great is written about by some historians as a man who had relations with boys or other men, yet this, once again, does not mean he was a homosexual. It was simply accepted the practice during his time.

In Egypt it was common for young girls to be married off at the age of 12 or 13, as soon as they reached puberty. Their husbands were 15 or 16. Marriage to brothers and sisters was not uncommon, and to have many wives and many children was not abnormal either. Ramses II had 170 children. (2)

Lesbian acts were also common in Greece mainly because the women were confined to the house, and their husbands were often off abroad for long periods of time, or simply off at work or in the markets or participating in sports all day long.

Sigerist explains this way of living:

"When we study ancient cultures our task is not to judge but to understand them. To that end we must avoid measuring them with the moral yardstick of our own time, realizing that our own morals have no absolute value but are the result of certain historical developments in which we happen to be involved at the moment. This is particularly necessary when we study the sex life of other civilizations. Customs vary; the style of living changes. To the superficial observer it may look as if the Greeks had been highly promiscuous, having intercourse with whoever happened to be around -- wife, slave girl, courtesan, boy, man -- but this was not at all the case. Affections were at least as deep as they are today. No Don Juan creates an art, literature, and philosophy as the Greeks have. Human relations were broader and deeper, and there was less hypocrisy in matters of sex than in our present world." (2, page 222)

Somewhere along the line our moralistic views changed. Perhaps men like Moses, who lived withing the Egyptian world, saw how difficult life was for children living amid these circumstances. It was men like him, thousands of years ago, who saw the value in creating a stable environment for children to mature in.

Perhaps it's for this reason that homosexuality and prostitution were frowned upon, as well as extramarital affairs, sex with young boys and girls, multiple marriages, etc. Perhaps I'm safe in making this speculation because the Bible in itself is a book of virtues, values, morals, family unity, discipline, individualism, capitalism, etc.

So when people today talk about making homosexuality, abortion, sodomy, and the like normal parts of our life, or acceptable, they are in a sense trying to take the morals of mankind full circle, back to the way they were during ancient Greek and Egyptian times.

I doubt that most of these people know this. I doubt they think of the consequences of this change that they are calling for. However, it's hard to argue with them when as Americans, as people who live in a free world, we preach the importance of freedom, personal choice, and accountability.

People should have the right to live the way they choose, whether that be by their environmental choice or natural calling. If such a choice has a consequence on their children, family life, or on society as a whole, it is their choice not the choice of government. Such may be the case, or argument, by those who call for gay marriage or the right to abortion (choice).

Yet it is the risks of such a promiscuous living, or choices, that have many in our society, mainly the religious among us (either Christians, Muslims or other). It is the religious majority who wish to place restraints on society, and who yearn to encourage governments to make abortion, homosexuality, and other such activities abnormal.

Such values and virtues were recognized by the founding fathers. Jefferson and Madison wrote letters at length discussing the importance of the government inculcating religion among the people. And hence is why we have religious words all over Washington, on our coins, and why Presidents said prayers and encouraged prayers in schools.

The founding fathers new that the government could not afford a military or a police, and so they needed to do something to encourage people to be good. They recognized this by studying ancient societies.

So even those who did not believe in God decided that God was important. People who believe in God also believe in the Devil and Hell. People will try to be good to get to Heaven and to avoid the fires of Hell. They will therefore be moralistic and virtuous members of society.

Those who wish to change what the founding fathers created for America wish to go back to life as it was in Ancient Greece or Egypt or even Mesopotamia. Yet now that we have studied our history, and know the absolute truth about that history instead of telling children the history we made up, we can understand both sides a little better. We must continue to strive for a happy medium.

What do you think?

References:

1. Sigerist, Henry E, "A History of Medicine," volume I; Primitive and Archaic Medicine, second printing, 1955, New York, Oxford University Press, pages 240-241
2. Sigerist, Henry E, "A History of Medicine," volume II: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine, second printing, 1955, pages 219-221

The proper order of priorities

I think it was about ten years ago that I had this really neat discussion with one of my patients about priorities.  In fact, what she said was so significant to me, that I shared it with the priest who was going to marry me and my wife, and he used it as part of our wedding sermon.
What she said was this: "In life, if you don't have your priorities straight, nothing ever works out. If you you do not have your priorities straight, you will not succeed in your life."

She put her thumb up. "This is God. He is your number one priority."

She then put her pointer finger up. "This pointer finger represents your wife."

She held up her middle finger up. This finger represents your children."

She held up her ring finger.  "This represents other people."

She held up her pinky finger.  "This represents other things."

"Now," she continued, "If you get these priorities out of place, nothing seems to work properly." 

She demonstrated this by placing her thumb between her pointer and ring finger. Then she made as to grab something, and could not do it.  "See," she said, "your hand does not work right when your fingers are out of order.  The same is true when your priorities are out of order.  If you place God after your wife and before your children, you can't grip anything.  Life simply doesn't work; it's all a mess." 

She placed her thumb between the middle finger and ring finger. "If you place your thumb here, you still can't get a grip on anything. "See!" She opened up her hand, and gripped mine with hers, "the only way you can really grip things, have control of the things in your life, is to put your thumb before your other fingers. God, in essence, is like your thumb. If you have no God in your life, nothing works right."

She smiled, and continued: "The same is true if you get other things in your life out of proper order. You must love your wife before your children, and love your children before other people. But you must always put other people before other things."

Not only did my priest use this during our wedding ceremony, he also used it during mass that week.  He said he was very impressed.  

So, that in mind, I thought I would take the time to list the priorities in my life. Perhaps you might do the same -- just for fun.

1. God 
2. Wife
3. Children
4. Brothers, Relatives, Friends and Co-workers
5. The United States
6. Job
7. Home
8. Sleep
9. Reading, Learning, and Stimulating Brain
10. Sports
11. Blogging
12. Other things

I suppose I was thinking of such priorities when I gave up golf and collecting baseball cards in order to provide for my new family.  I would, however, love to start doing both again, however. 

Humility

I wrote a while back how life is humbling, it's not just baseball itself is humbling, as many athletes say.  Most God fearing people are trained to be humble, and as we face the trials and trivializations of life this often becomes the case by default.

According to Wikepedia (sure why now), humble is defined as such:

"Humility (adjectival form: humble) is the quality of being modest, reverential, even politely submissive, and never being arrogant, contemptuous, rude or even self-abasing. Humility, in various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of transcendent
unity with the universe or the divine, and of egolessness.

Humility means being aware of the feelings and needs of the people around you and finding a place for them in your heart. Sometimes needs are short term, sometimes long term.

Needs? What are needs?

Needs can be something physical like food and water and shelter, or something internal, like an ear to listen to you, a hug, or a friend.

Most people who who work in the medical profession say they went into medical field because they love people. Yet do they truly have "empathy?" Do they truly have humility?

I don't see humility when I approach the nurses station and the staff is complaining about how they didn't get a raise for the year, and how the bosses are "ignorant" for not giving "me" a raise.

I don't see humility in that, because a person with humility would see that the boss didn't give anyone raises so all staff could keep their jobs. A humble person would jump into his bosses shoes and see what it's like from that perspective (although there are selfish, greedy exceptions of course).

I have humility, I would imagine, when I get called stat to do an EKG that is not needed in my opinion. The whole time I'm walking down there I'm thinking what I'm going to tell the irritating nurses who keeps calling me stat for non life threatening instances.

Yet, once I see the nurse, I see them as the people they are, just working to make a living. So, instead of complaining to them, instead of lecturing them, I keep my mouth shut and just do the job.

I may not do it with a smile, but at least I'm respectful.

Say it's slow at work and your boss says, "One of you RTs needs to go home." Your coworker is burned out and really wants to go home. Yet she says, "Why don't you go home, you have little kids and a wife who is sick."

That was a humble act in my opinion.

Some doctors in the emergency room will not consider the opinions of any other person in the room. They order what they want and complain when it's not done. They walk with their heads high as though they are better than everyone else. Humble they are not.

On the other hand, the humble doctor says, "Does any one else in the room have any ideas that might help this patient?"

Humility is sacrificing your own pride to lift up the other person's pride. Humility is sacrificing your time and energy and your own personal needs to make someone else happy.

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Charity

Charity should be a principle good deed in life. If you have money and time that is. It's more important to your spirit to give than to build up your personal empire. It's good to give of yourself and your time. The greatest gift anyone can ever give is charity.

By chaity I'm not referring just to money. I'm referring to anything that you give: time, money, an ear, encouraging words, etc. Any act of humility in a sense is a charitable contribution. It's anything that makes someone else better.

You can make a difference in another person's life. Don't let bad events change you either. Don't stop giving just because bad things happen, because bad things happen to everyone. Don't close off your heart.

It's important that you care about the entire human condition, not jut about this and not just about that and not just about yourself and not just about your family. You have to give of yourself in a way that you make the entire human condition better.

And it doesn't have to be something big either. For instance, I'm writing this blog and I have kids and I'm a respiratory therapist and I help people. In that way I have made the world better in just a small way, or so I'm lead to believe. You have your own way of contributing.

Are you an RT or a nurse or an EMT or a doctor? Then you are contributing. You are giving a charity to each person you touch in a positive way. Every time you smile to your boss instead of getting angry at him you are, in a sense, giving charity.

You are one person in a material world. No matter how much you have, no matter what gifts God has given you (or the peanut butter ferry if you don't believe in God), share it. Because you can make a huge difference. Give to charity. Give of yourself in some way.

Myth buster: Values are worse today than ever before

Many people like to think that things, during the times they are alive in, are worse than they have ever been before.  Sometimes that's true, as we have never seen terrorism the way we are seeing it today, particularly from a non nation.  But in most cases, it is not true.

Consider that some people like to say things like: "The values of our kids is worse than it ever has been."

Something interesting that should blow the socks off people who say that is that people have been saying this, generation after generation, since the beginning of human existence.  Consider the the first person to say this in writing was Plato, and he was born in 428 B.C.

Plato said:

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

A few hundred years later, in AD 1274, Peter the Hermit joined the chorus.

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint ... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress."

You see, it's nothing new for people to think that morals and values are worse during their lifetimes than ever before.

The truth is that if Plato and Peter the Hermit said this, then it was probably said by philosophers before them, and it was probably said by people going all the way back to the beginning of civilization, and maybe even the beginning of time.  Proof of this comes from an inscription, saying basically the same thing, in a 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb.

So morals and values, particularly among the youth, are not worse today than they have ever been before.  People who say such, people who truly believe such words, have not studied up on their history.

The best way to raise a family is under God

I like to equate God with virtues, values, and morals.  In that way, it's from reading the Bible, from going to Church, that we learn these things.  It is for this reason that it's important that if you have kids that you take them to Church and raise them under the influence of God and Jesus and Christianity.

Both my parents and both sets of grandparents did this, and all of their children grew up to become respectable adults.  So when I started a family there wasn't a thought in my mind to try something different.  I am presently raising all my kids under the influence of God.

However, I know people who aren't.  And I have no problem with it.  I mean, you do what you feel you have to do.  I'm not saying you can't raise good kids without going to Church, but studies show it's harder.  In fact, every study ever done on the subject shows that children raised under God have a significantly higher chance of succeeding in life.

I mean, the numbers are so much higher it's not even close.  Kids not raised under god have a significantly higher risk of depression, anxiety, fear of death, anger, hate, etc.  They also have a significantly higher rate of getting in trouble, spending time in jail or prison, etc.

The neat thing is, however, is that without doing one study, people over 2,000 years ago figured this out.  Anyone who reads history books knows that prior to the Hebrews people married whomever they wanted to marry, had sex with whomever they desired, raped whomever they desired, aborted babies they didn't want. The result of this was lots of children in many families, and no family stability.  It also resulted in the spread of disease.

It was for this reason that the Jews, the Hebrews, created the laws they did.  It was for this reason that God, through Moses, created the laws he did.  He wanted to make sure people respected him.  He wanted to make sure people had morals and virtues.  He wanted to make sure people respected him and feared him, the way they should respect and fear their parents.

And it worked.  The Jews learned that in homes with a mom and a dad children had the stability they needed.  From mom they learned to love and respect God, and from dad they learned how to work hard and to respect women.

I'm not an expert on this subject, but I've read many books where the authors say that people who don't go to church don't go because they don't want to be judged. Christians do judge.  But we also love and respect people.

I have never once ever saw a Christian, a good Christian anyway, ever say anything bad at another person because he had a child out of wedlock, or a divorce, or anything like that.  They just don't do that.

Another reason they say people don't go to church is because it's too inconvenient.  And I will admit that it is inconvenient.  But the end product of children who love and fear the Lord, and who learn about the values and virtues that are needed to live a successful life makes all this inconvenience worth it in the end.

The Bible and God and Christianity are morals, virtues, and principles.  That's the bottom line here.  People figured this out over 2,000 years ago, so why would you want to go and wreck a system that has worked so well for so many years?

You don't learn morals and values when the dad is the government.

 I mean, even if you don't believe in God, you should do it for the children.