Sunday, August 22, 2004

somethin' about my gen-eration.

after listening for hours to friends and hearing Taylorites struggle and battle with things back at home and seeing so many families (including my own on occasion) who seem to be just not functioning properly, i've come to this conclusion about my generation: we have no concept of the word 'honor.' we don't know what it means, really and we don't know how to live it, honestly. for me, whenever i hear the word honor, i think of one of two things: shakespeare (b/c he seemed to write a lot about it) or that bible verse i'm sure is found in proverbs that tells children to 'honor thy father and thy mother.' this has been my current upbringing and education to date on the subject of honor. i've rarely heard it preached on in churches, or addressed when christians get together and try and solve the world in one night. why though? why is this little word rarely uttered or discussed? when was the last time you said, 'joe really honors his dad, doesn't he?' it seems almost foreign or foolish to even think of such a question. yet, i think it's probably one of our generations biggest flaws and its something we didn't fail at alone. it's connected to our parents and their parents and their uncles and etc., so i'm not blaming us as one, big, stupid entity of a generation. i love my generation even when i look like i hate it. i just have been thinking about this thing (among some) this past summer and it seems like i keep revisiting this idea and what it means when we say that our generation doesn't know how to honor their elders or authorities or anyone in power above them? the only slight hint of it seems to be in dating relationships or newlywed marriages and for this, i'm grateful. yet, i can't help but think that we are missing something big. that perhaps maybe, just maybe, God spoke that verse about honor and that he meant for us to obey it. is this part of the reason for our being such a spoiled, bratty generation? i'm not sure.

i admire the way we (as a generation) seem to question everything and why we do what we do and with what intentions we do the things we do. but it seems we take it too far when very little respect is given to people 50 years older than us, or in how we treat our parents on occasion or how we simply relate to friends...especially behind their backs. it seems to all come back to honor, in one sense or another and for this reason, i'm rambling on and on and on. i don't know where we go from here though. i have no real point in writing this except to get some thoughts out in the open to people who i rarely talk with in person. it's just one of those nights where i feel very passionate about this problem i think i have and most people from my generation and feel the need to see if maybe i'm just crazy or something. i don't know. i hate ends to blog posts.

1 comment:

Chalupa said...

Good stuff. I've had very similar thoughts before and I don't really know of a solution except to try and change the way I personally act. I don't always live up to my own expectations, but that's probably the first step in trying to change this.