The Values We Cherish

As you probably know, Mark has been unemployed for almost a year, and we've lost our Homestead Exemption on our home mortgage, and many of our resources are running dry; right now we're facing a tough row ahead if we don't find work, and pronto!   I say this, not because it's unusual, because of course it isn't, but because we recently found about a way to work things that would save us a lot of money over the next year or so, and it doesn't involve fraud or breaking the law.  It's just morally wrong.

It seems quite morally ambiguous, and even harmless on the surface.  But as I sat thinking about it tonight, I remembered my Dad and how you could call him even stubbornly honest, he was so scrupulous about it.  And he would tell me stories about Abraham Lincoln or William Wallace or someone he knew after he joined the church that he really admired, and I could feel how much those men meant to him, and how much he wanted to be like them - and that meant a lot to me.

Dad also took care of the shopping and transportation or gardening help for many elderly widows, all without anyone else's knowledge.  And if he saw or heard someone in need, he didn't hesitate to help them at all.  He taught us to push cars, shovel snow, carry boxes, and move plants.  Once, he carried an elderly lady's giant white stove up three flights of stairs on his back - he was reallly strong.

No wonder...he worked hard!

Mom was right there by his side, just as honest and just as hard-working.  He used her for his referral source, or you might say, need-finder.  She'd tell him about someone in need and off he'd go, alone or (usually, unless she was unwell, with Mom).  For much of my childhood we kids would wait in the car as she visited with the needy or helped someone who was ill.   

Their whole lives they spent countless hours in service of all kinds.  They believed in basic values like patriotism and raising your children to be good citizens and learning first aid and volunteering.  The things they taught me and that I saw them do have made me who I am.  I am so grateful for that foundation in my life.  I know the roots of that foundation go back generations and generations, and that our children are teaching their children those same values.  They are so precious and important!

As I thought of these things, I didn't even have to pray about what I would do, and I knew Mark would feel the same way, because he'd been raised by the same type of people.  And I also knew that this is the kind of challenge we will face in the future.  Now is the time for us to decide, ahead of time, whether we'll be the ones fighting over the food or sharing with others.  That's what happens when resources get scarce.

Lots of people nowadays think that that kind of thinking belongs in the last century, that you should work all the angles, but I bear you my testimony that we have been taught better than that and a higher standard of behavior is required of us.  We are men and women with compassion and dignity, and we are honest people.  Let's not sell our heritage for a mess of pottage like Esau did.  Let's be "true to the truths that our parents have cherished" in all our dealings, to the best of our ability, no matter what the cost. 

We love you!  Please pray for each other!

xoxoxo