Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility is one of those core values that seems to be lacking these days. It seems as though we are so quick to put the blame onto others or onto situations rather than taking responsibility for our choices. Just recently there was a 13 year old boy and a 15 year old girl who became parents. They have had their pictures in the papers and on television and on the internet. They are now famous. The first thing the father of the 13 year old boy did was sale the pictures of his new grandchild to the highest bidder. These kids were asked how they would make it financially. The 13 year old asked, "What's financially?" I don't hear many voices standing up and saying this is wrong! Parents have a sacred responsibility to raise their children up to the Lord. They have a responsibility to teach their children right from wrong and to instill righteous values through example and constant teaching. There have been values set in this situation, just not any that are good. My concern is for that sweet little one who came into this less than ideal situation. What kind of a life will this child have? Why can't this little one have a chance at a good life and be put up for adoption? This happens too many times and too many innocent lives pay the price for lack of personal responsibility on the part of others.
Another example is the growing government and all the new plans that will assist people. As I have written earlier, we are guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We aren't guaranteed certain results. We are blessed to have the freedom of choice. With every choice comes consequences - that is just life. If we make poor choices, we deal with the consequence, and learn from them and do better next time. Now the government is taking away that personal responsibility from people. They are basically saying that they will remove the consequences from your choices and make everything better. They are saying that you have tried and through no fault of your own, bad things have happened and they will take those bad things away. NO!!! That is not how it should be. We have all the freedom in the world to make choices but we have no freedom to choose the consequences that come with those choices. It reminds me of planting a tree. Often times you will see a tree planted with stakes secured to it to keep it straight. I was told one time that you should never stake a tree. The tree needs to be able to stand against the wind...that it how it grows strong and then will grow straight. It needs to learn how to stand strong against the storms and the wind without help. The government is trying to tie America down. America is the tree and the government is the stake. The longer the government takes away the wind and the storms and the consequences, the weaker and more dependent America becomes on the government. The tree will never be able to stand on its own if the stake is ever taken away. Let us stand tall and firm against the storms. Let us experience joy and pain through our own choices. Let us take personal responsibility no matter how difficult. That is how we learn and how we become strong and able to face whatever comes our way.