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Real Answers™
jj96
Copyright: © ©2006 James J. Jackson
630 words

STANDING PRINCIPLE IS GOOD PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS

By: James J. Jackson

When I was a child, my parents, and my friends’ parents went to great lengths to assure that they had more influence upon my life choices than anyone or anything else.  Not so today. Nowadays, if a parent posed the age old question, "If all of your friends jumped over a cliff, would you do the same?" to their children, they might be surprised to hear the answer: “Yes!”   

Children today are constantly bombarded with negative, and often deadly, role models.  In order to be accepted, they often will abandon whatever moral compass their parents may have tried to instill in them.  How can we expect our kids to grow up to be honorable, upstanding citizens when everything they are taught seems to be 180 degrees out of phase?   

Television shows often depict parents as buffoons and idiots.  Prison was always something to avoid at all costs, first by avoiding activity that could land one there. Today, many Black teens have been quoted as saying that prison is a rite of passage.  

Societal icons in movies, rap and T.V. compete daily (with an alarming amount of success) with parents who try to help their children develop a work ethic and self-restraint.  These outside influences teach kids that they can have it all, with little or no effort, without a moral focus, and they should expect no consequences for bad  behavior.   

Parents have little opportunity to set the tone from clothing to language to interaction with the opposite sex, because today’s children are being led by the strongest person or impulse. Clothes are often patterned after prison garb, i.e. no belt; pants drooping and uncombed hair (belts and combs aren’t allowed in jail).   

Today, it seems that many people of all ages, but especially children, seem to operate in a pack mentality, whereby the leader with the most influence is more often than not the most dysfunctional of the group. Almost daily we hear of people of weak character being led into crime, drugs, and self-destructive activity.

Gang activity is at an all time high across the nation. Kids join and follow whoever is the dominant personality. Many people in prison are there because they blindly followed another person or group into criminal activity rather than taking a stand and doing what is right.   The concept of standing alone on principle seems to be lost.  

'Mike,' was honorably discharged from the Army, but became friends with a group of young men with whom he had little in common beyond a love of rap music.  After several weeks of 'hanging out' with his newfound friends, Mike, like his friends, became unmotivated, began using drugs, and slid toward trouble.   

One day, someone in the group suggested that they rob a bank.  Although this violated every principle he had been taught, Mike didn't have the nerve to stand up to his friends.   

He waited in the getaway car with the driver, and ended up going to jail, charged with bank robbery along with his friends. Mike’s life was destroyed because of his refusal to consider the consequences of compromising his principles and not standing alone.

Young people have to be taught to stand alone and to avoid people who demonstrate self-defeating behavior.  Fill a child’s heart with Gods love, His music, and, mostly, His written rules for living, and  the ways of the world are less likely to get a foothold. Give children core values to guide them in all circumstances.

The Bible includes many stories about people who took a stand on principle.  Joshua, when everyone seemed to be moving away from God's laws, stated: "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."  

I'd rather take a stand on principle than suffer the consequences of following the crowd.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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