According to a report from the Barna Group issued July 26, 2010, the weakened economy seriously impacts what Americans consider to be their priorities in life. In the face of a continued lackluster marketplace, many Americans have focused on surviving and thriving. When asked to identify their priorities in life, Americans increasingly mention issues of health, leisure, personal comfort, and lifestyle balance. These priorities have grown from 13 percent in 2006 to 20 percent in 2010. Today
Americans are more concerned wealth, finances, and paying the bills, too. These categories have climbed among respondents from 9 percent in 2006 to 17 percent today.
With Americans progressively leaning toward finances and health concerns as top issues, fewer of them are prioritizing issues along family and faith lines. While 51 percent of Americans mentioned family as a top priority in 2006, today 45 percent give family the same position. Likewise, fewer adults said their top priority was faith as that category decreased from 16 percent in 2006 to 12 percent today.
So what does all this mean for the future of America? With ever more people de-prioritizing the import of faith and family, it would seem that America will increase as a country with a "me-first" mentality. We are in danger of creating a society, in which voters will vote not for the most qualified candidate, but rather the one that will put more emphasis on the pressing needs of the present. It is my observation that this premise is supported by a front page article in USA Today from July 22, 2010. This article reports that hundreds of thousands of Americans who are on welfare are now registering to vote at their local welfare office. The article goes on to claim that this will increase support for the current administration, since people with an income of under $20,000 see the current legislation designed to give them more while taking away from the wealthy.
Men, is it time to stand up for faith and family?
Is there something we can do that puts our faith in God and our love for our families back among our top priorities?
Is it time to put God first?
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It’s always time to put God first. Not just when things look bleak. But always. When things aren’t going well, people tend to look outside themselves for help. God sometimes lets bad things happen to get our attention. Often we have to hit bottom before we can look up. I often thank God that I’m not filthy rich, so I don’t get too far off track and think I don’t need God. Unfortunately, we humans too often are willing to accept help from anyone when we are in need, not just God. When the government “gives” us handouts we too often are willing to accept them, even when there are better alternatives. Some people don’t seem to care that that handout isn’t from the government. It’s from citizens. The government just takes it from them to give to someone else. At least Robin Hood did it out of love for the people. Our government does it to make more people dependent on them. If you don’t think that’s true, ask yourself what the president’s right hand man meant when he said, “We should never let a disaster go to waste.”
Today there are a lot of people who are out of work thru no fault of their own. They need help. But instead of the government making it easier for employers to hire more people by lowering corporate taxes and reducing red tape, they want to increase taxes and make people more dependent on government. Our leaders seem to love the idea of being leaders. They love the power over the people. And they realize that human nature is such that some people are willing to take a handout instead of working for a reasonable wage.
We need to pray that God will give us leaders who have His wishes in mind. This November we the people have an opportunity to make things better in this country. I pray that we don’t make the same mistake we made in the last election. This country has been a great country in the past. We have prospered with God’s help for over 200 years. We have been more generous than any other country to those in other countries who were in need. We have worked for peace and sacrificed with the lives of brave men and women. God has given us freedom, and we have benefited from it. But out current leaders want to take away those freedoms, and make us slaves to them. We need to start over with a completely new set of leaders that are representatives of the people, not lifetime politicians.
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