Thursday, February 14, 2019

Was there ever really a "good old days"

The older I get the more I become aware of the fact that no there was not ever a "good old days".  I see many people get fired up about issues and seem to put on very distorted views of these days gone by.  While I would agree past generations did things different, was it really better or good?  We tend to forget that it was not a lack of sin that existed it was a lack of awareness.  Is this generation really doing things better?? Time will tell!  But the past didn't have the keys to better.  While yes we saw more marriages stay together, but what we didn't see was the abuse the women were not allowed to talk about, the isolation and lack of say in their own futures.  Yes we seemed to have"safer neighborhoods" where these moms were keeping an eye out, but was the for everyone or just those in the right socioeconomic situation and the right color.  Yes abortion was not an issues, but do we neglect to remember that sex was still happening before marriage and these girls who got pregnant were shunned and sent away to maternity homes only to have their babies taken from them and put up for adoption without an option to be their mother.  Do we remember that yes we had the 10 commandments and prayer in school, but we still had segregation and blatant racism.  We have forever lived in a world tainted in sin, no generation had a better handle on it.  Yes we believed girls should be girls and boys should be boys, but do we forget how those who didn't fit the mold were ridiculed and bullied even by their own families.  We need to not live in a way where we believe the generation we were most comfortable in our sin was really better.  We need to remember every generation is doing its best to survive and thrive in a sinful world and instead of constantly reminding this generation that we did it  "better" or ridicule their choices in carrying the weight we left them we need to come along side them, listen to them, work with them. Our choices may not have been the same as theirs but they were not better. Going back to the way it was doesn't help in fact for many that is a terrifying thought.