May, June, and
early July are my favorite months of the year. The flowers are blooming, birds
are singing, and comfortably warm days abound. There are sunny days to enjoy
before the sweltering humidity of late July and August are upon us. Beyond the
weather and changes of spring into summer are the most important holidays of the
year—behind Christmas and Easter of course; everything is second to the birth,
death, and resurrection of our King.
It’s ironic that
the holidays for Mother, Memorial Day, Father, and Independence Day fall so
close together, and in chronological order. May, June, and July are all about
fun, laughs, cookouts, and what we have accomplished as a nation. However, there
is so much more to remember in these three months and, for that matter,
throughout the whole year. After all, isn’t that what a memorial is all about?
During my travels
as a private investigator, I passed by a little church whose billboard read “God
must really love mothers because He made so many.” That gave me a wave of two
totally different emotions: first, warmth, because I have a mother I love so
much; and, second, sadness, because of what has happened to the institution of
motherhood. It’s true that the Bible calls the female the weaker sex, but only
because of her physical strength, not of her total responsibility.
God gave woman a
unique gift and huge responsibility in child rearing and development. The Bible
says that a woman should marry, “have children, manage their homes, and to give
the enemy no opportunity for slander” (1Timothy 5:14). We cry out every day as
our children are gunned down in schools, commit suicide at an alarming rate, and
are more into illicit drugs and sex than at any other time in our nation’s
history. The family unit has broken down and so many kids today have no respect
for their elders.
The common theme
with all of us is, “Why are these things happening to our children?” Well, in
the New Testament, when Jesus really wanted to illustrate His point He would
always start a sentence with, “I tell you the truth.” So, I tell you the truth
here when I say that, as a society, we aren’t remembering well enough.
Our
Special Memorial Days
It’s true that
Memorial Day is about our fallen soldiers, but we should heed the fact that they
answered their call to duty—which is something that we, as a nation, are not
doing.
Verse 15 of the
passage from Timothy I mentioned above finished like this: “Some have in fact
already turned away to follow Satan.” When a woman turns from her God-given gift
to follow her own aspirations of “womanhood,” she is following the same doctrine
that pushes the devil—prideful arrogance. On Memorial Day each year, we should
remember that women were given the gift of compassion, sensitivity, and a true
nurturing ability. They were not created to be feminists, liberals, or lesbians,
but the centerpiece of the family unit, carrying themselves with purity and
respect in the home--raising, nurturing, and creating the leaders of tomorrow.
Fathers, on our
special day when we are reading the cards that say how great we are, we need to
remember how many fathers have turned their backs on their God-given gifts. The
Bible says, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in
the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Instead, some fathers
are teaching their children tolerance of other people’s beliefs and that there
is no absolute truth here; that everything is relative. Children are being
taught that this is not a Christian nation, but rather a nation of Islam,
Buddhism, Hinduism, liberal Christianity, and New Age religion. As men, many of
us are becoming weak and amiable, having been taught to ignore our God-given
gifts of strength and our leadership in the household. In addition, we may not
be showing sufficient respect for women in general, and falling short of the
gentleman’s creed of Godliness towards our partner, who should not be seen as an
object of sexual gratification..
So, on
Independence Day when you’re celebrating as a nation what we have ascribed to,
lift your glass in the remembrance of what we promised God we would do when He
gave us the authority and power to make this nation. That it was to be a nation
under God— under His authority, and in remembrance of what He sacrificed
for us. We promised we would live by His guidelines that are at the very basis
of the law that now has shunned His commandments from its courts.
Better yet, let’s be honest with ourselves and come to terms
with the fact that many have “become independent” from their true mother,
father, friend, and Lord. Each year on Memorial Day, we ought to do a reality
check, look in the mirror, and have a true Memorial—one for the true soldier who
took hold of us with one hand, God with other, two pieces of tree, and three
nails with His body, all to save us. In doing so, we might find a little
reflection before it’s too late.
Our nation is the grip of sin and, no matter how hard we try,
we cannot escape it or fix it with our own humanistic pride. As a nation, we
must realize that we have truly become what the Bible predicted those thousands
of years before our birth.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to
their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them”
(2 Timothy 3:1-5).
If believers and
nonbelievers alike will take the time to read on to Revelation, it will be clear
that this is exactly what’s going to happen. God is going to have nothing to do
with people who turn from Him to “do their own thing.”
________
Shawn is the author of FIND HAPPINESS! How to
Fill the VOID in Your Life by LOOKING, FEELING, and LIVING BETTER!
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