Craig Clouston

1–800-Who Cares?

Those who are pure in their own eyes … those whose teeth are swords …
Proverbs 30:12, 14

“Excuse me, young man. Could you tell me if there—” The elderly gentleman began, but was immediately cut off!
“Do I look like a tour guide?” the young man said condescendingly. “Look, old man, if you want directions, call 1–800-WHO-CARES!” And with that, he reburied his head in the book he was reading.
Taken aback, the gentleman looked about the mall’s concourse to determine if there was a pharmacy in the complex; his wife was having an angina attack. She’d forgotten her pills and needed nitro to relieve the pain and tightness in her chest!
Deciding to try once more, he began, “Young man, I don’t understand your attitude, nor do I care at this moment to teach you how to respect your elders, but my wife is in need of medication immediately, and I need to know if there is a pharmacy in the mall!”
“Oh, dude, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Yeah, there’s one down that hall,” he said, pointing to his right, “about half way down on the right.”
With that, the gentleman headed that direction, focused on bringing his wife the care she needed, but determined to revisit the young man if he was still there when this was over.

†

Every generation has a group of people whose world is so small that they believe they are the epicenter. Conversely, each generation has become increasingly disrespectful. They have graduated summa cum I couldn’t care less, responding viciously to those who have done them no harm.
The truth is they are a result of our own teaching. We have relaxed the boundaries of discipline to the point that we allow blatant disrespect within our classrooms in deference to lawsuits against well-intended educators in the name of civil rights. This epidemic has run amok! We have forfeited the right to civility because we do not wish to deal with the responsibility of changing matters, leaving it to be inherited by each ensuing generation.
There is not ample room to address this issue correctly here; to say discipline begins at home is a good start.

Prayer

“Help me care about raising caring, respectful children, Lord. Guide me as I guide them. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”