Sep. 26, 2005
"Not Yours to Give"
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A
speech from a "legendary" American hero is just as pertinent, if not
more so, today than it was the day he presented it before
Congress. This is long, but oh-so-worth it. http://www.pointsouth.com/csanet/greatmen/crockett/crockett2.htm Today is a day of quoting others, I guess. The following quotes were published in the 05-39 Brief of The Federalist Patriot http://federalistpatriot.us/pub/05-39_Brief.htm "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson "I find no warrent for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. . . The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strenthens the bonds of a common brotherhood." --President Grover Cleveland Personal charity and giving of yourself. These are things I want to impress upon my children. Somehow, in an age where the government is expected to (and expects to) "take care" of everyone from pre-birth to the grave, I will have to find a way to demonstrate this to them. I think they are seeing this in a small way when they do things like help to get supplies off of the list from the church for one of the relief teams we've been sending weekly to 2 different areas. In fact, I almost cried last week at something ds1 said. Our pastor had been on the first team we sent and during the sermon, he was mentioning some of the things that went on while they were there. He was also talking about the team that would be leaving the next morning for a different town and asking for prayer, care kits, supplies, etc. And volunteers for the 3rd team (it left this morning) that was going back to the first town. Toward the end of the service, ds1 pulled on my arm and whispered to me "Mom, how do you get to do that?" I didn't know exactly what he was talking about (him asking wasn't immediately after all this discussion), so he expounded "Go on one of those teams. I need to go. People need help." He said this in such an urgent, almost desperate tone that I wanted to cry. He really has an extremely tender heart and he's not always lost in an egotistical "kid world" (not to say he's never like that lol). The moments when he truly gets it are like a pure balm to my soul  . It's an affirmation in the midst of intermittent doubt, that at the very least, we're doing something
right. When I told him kids just weren't able to go, he was very
disappointed and asked me how he was supposed to be able to help all
these people if kids aren't allowed to help. I reminded him of
all the things we'd brought to the church just that morning and how Dad
and I couldn't go right now, either, but we can send things that the
people need with the ones who can go. So back to the original thought - can I, in this time of "entitlement" for everyone/everything/ every situation impress the "Love your neighbor as yourself" way of life into my children? I think we've already started. |
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