What children have lost

Security comes from knowing the truth, faith is strengthened when we believe the truth, and courage is the result of acting on the truth.

            In the 1950's kids lost their innocence.  They were liberated from their parents by well paying jobs, cars, and lyrics and music that gave rise to a new term of the generation gap.

            In the 1960's kids lost their authority.  It was the decade of protest, church, state, parents, were all called into question and found wanting.  Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

            In the 1970's kids lost their love.  It was a decade of me-isms, dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self: self-esteem, self-image, self-worth, self-assertion, it made for a lonely world; kids learned everything there was to know about sex, but forgot everything there was to know about love.  No one had the nerve to tell them that there was a difference.

            In the 1980's kids lost their hope; stripped of innocence, authority and love, plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, a large and growing number of this generation stopped believing in the future.

            In the 1990's kids lost their power to reason; less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic. They grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.

            In the new millennium they woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocence, since none was innocent anymore. The slide into despair began early, decades ago. The lack of innocence which is in reality a lack of wonder, has a direct bearing on hopelessness and evil.  The loss of wonder sets the stage for cynicism, doubt, and unbelief.

 

The above quote was taken from Compelling Words for a Confused Culture -- Part 3

Tuesday, January 01, 2008, Insights for Living, Chuck Swindoll