Does God Really Care About My Hangnail?

One of the topics my wife and I often talk about is how "me centered" everything has become. In early childhood experiences we don't want to make anyone feel badly about performance, so everyone is equal and in sports, we don't keep score. Competition is bad when you are young, and good when you are old. Okay, I can get passed that, but what is happening to some of our 20 year olds is not healthy nor is it normal. They want the whole world not to keep score.  Well, guess what, competition is alive and well, and our little fuzzy world of protecting our kids has backfired. In many publications we find more and more that the USA is falling further behind in our abilities to compete with the education received in other countries.  Here is a report from MPR. 

New results from a test that compares education in developed and developing countries confirms that the U.S. is falling behind. NPR's Melissa Block talks with analyst Michael Davidson of the Program for International Student Assessment about the results of his organization's test.

An absoluate wake up call for America.  That's how Education Secretary Arne Duncan views the result of an international  standardized test in which U.S students ranked from 15th to 25th worldwide in science , reading and math.  At the top of the list are students from Shanghai, Hong hong and Singapore. 

I have to wonder if all the pampering our children received while they were going through the paces in elementary school contributed to these lower scores?  In many of these countries I doubt if any pampering when on, if nothing else they told that in order for you to compete with western nations you have be be better than they are in educating yourselves.  In fact, in many places in the world, students know 2,3 or more languages, and are fluent in them all.  So why am I picking on our pampered "don't keep score" generation? Because I see this is a weakening of the character of a person. I realize not everyone will compete at the highest levels in society, but an entitlement attitude doesn't build a "can do" society, it builds a "what's in it for me" society. 

Why is this important to blog about?  Because I see this pampered attitude in the church too. "God is going to take care of us, and we won't have to go through anything too tough in these last days" attitudes.    Really?   We forget about those saints who went before us who suffered greatly, and yet without complaint because they knew what God had promised them was worth the suffering. Hebrews 11 says;

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.  36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  37They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—  38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

The scripture is full of battles and it took God to win them for Israel, and today, life is full of battles that only God can win for you.  So don't waste your energy on the hangnails, you have bigger things to concern God with than a little discomfort.  

Keeping it honest and truthful..K