I hear the word "sustainable" all the time. Everywhere. The Sustainability of the Planet. Sustainable forests. Sustainable crops. On and on and on.

People who know me know I'm not a Green Person, per se. Even though my favorite color is green. When I was a Girl Scout, we called outhouses "greenies." But I really bristle against most things claiming to be "green."

This is not something new. I was around at the first Earth Day in 1970. I didn't like it then, either. You see, Ecology was becoming a booming thing, especially among the hippies. I just wasn't sure there was anything wrong with its predecessor, Conservation. Teddy Roosevelt was big on the Big C. As Girl Scouts, we Left Our Campsites Cleaner Than We Found Them. We stuck a cup under a dripping faucet for two minutes to be Shocked and Amazed at the amount of water wasted. We turned off lights as we left the room. (Oh, yeah. That was my Mother--"don't you know how big our electric bill is?")

As a matter of fact, the whole Green Thing would really go nowhere if it wasn't good business. Recycling facilities would cease to exist if they didn't make any money. That's why you can get fined in our town if you steal aluminum cans from recycling bins before the truck comes to take them to the prescribed facility. We wouldn't want Mr. Individual to turn those same cans into Recycleville to get money for himself, would we?

And don't get me started on Trees. Use the electric dryer in the McDonald's restroom instead of paper towels? How about the cost of Fossil Fuels to run the dryer? Now, the Mess factor of overflowing trash cans? There's an argument I can sink my teeth into.

Same thing happened one time when I served lunch on paper plates. Some neighbor kid told me that I was wasting trees, and should be using permanent plates. I then asked him how much energy it took to wash the plate with hot water, as well as the water to launder the dishcloth and towel. Hmm. Food for thought.

And then, there is the Real Christmas Tree argument. People, people, people. Can you get this in your head?

TREES ARE A CASH CROP.

Just like soybeans. Plant them, harvest them, replant them. Lumber and paper companies have been "planting two for each one they take" for over fifty years now. We are not Raping the Land.

Wow. Got off-subject there big-time.

When I was young (before big plastic garbage bags) we used to lay out yesterday's newspaper on the table after supper. We put all of our garbage on it, wrapped it up, and put it in our shiny aluminum garbage can. We had a large family, but never had more than two cans-full every week. Because all of the wrapping/peanut/styrofoam junk wasn't wrapping everything you bought. Convenience food was rare. Many people burned their paper trash. And of course, Pampers had not been invented yet, either.

Wikipedia defines Sustainability this way:

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. It can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

We can spend oodles of time being Green. I read a magazine article once about a family that only had a tiny waste-basket-full of trash a year. They recycled virtually everything, except they couldn't find a way to recycle toothpaste tubes. They spent a lot of time taking care of disposing things because they were committed to doing so.

Think about what would happen if we spent that same effort on our families?

How would the earth look in the next generation, or even, four or five generations in the future, if we took time to "green" our family lives? I'm talking about Nurturing. Time. Effort. Enrichment. Teaching. Worshipping. Loving. Caring about each other as much as we do ourselves.

Sustainability: the capacity to endure. Sustainable for centuries, should the Lord tarry. My pastor told me once about a theological concept called Redeem and Lift. He used his own life as an example. His father got saved in middle age. His mother took [my pastor] to church, but after his father got saved, it was a whole new ball game. He (my pastor) in turn, started his family as a Christian, and so, in his generation, the Lift part has happened. What if, in our own families, each generation was Lifted higher in the things of God?

When Charming and I were dating, one of the goals we decided on for our family was to raise lots of kids who would be mentally and emotionally healthy as adults. They, in turn, would form (eight) new healthy families. Multiplying ourselves by eight? Sounds good to me.

Sustainability in action. And how much more important that recycling *things?*

Note: Please don't think I'm dissing recycling. I recycle. But maybe because I pay for it on my water bill, whether I want to or not?

Nah, I'm not that irresponsible. But you will be more likely to see me at a rally for Pro-Life issues than at an Earth Day rally.

Why don't you make a commitment to Sustainibility for the Christian family? It is a campaign with eternal consequences, and eternal rewards.

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Posted by dawilli

Very well said!

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Posted by ThriceBlessed

Couldn't agree more!

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