Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday January 4, 2008

Talk about a wakeup call for the guardians of the national treasure, December certainly was month to be remembered. All over the country the headlines and sound bites told of yet another "role model" fallen, fallen into the lowest realm of the nether world, and now millions of our treasured young will be forever scarred by the scandal. Oh, the horror!

A long list of "Role Models" bit the dust in 2007, making the life of our youth evermore less than heaven. Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Little Brittany Spears, and now Brit's little baby 16 year old sister Jamie Lynn is accused of forfeiting her "role model" status due to being due.

I wonder where we adults ever got the idea that athletes are to be role models for the children. And on what mountain did Moses lay down the law that teeny boppers were to set the pace for our sniveling, whining pre-and older children. Think about it.

Does the scripture give a clear example of "role modeling?" To whom is the mantle of "role model" given? Dog fight entrepreneurs? Children pretending to be even younger children on television? Unproven novices in the many and varied fields of life?

The scripture is very clear on the just who and even the method and the why of "role models" for the young.

Rather than merely quote a verse or two here, I turn to one our nation's most astute experts on the subject of "role models" for the young. Yes, my expert is a woman, but a special woman with rare insight into the murky world of "role models."

At a recent gathering on morning television, several women discussed the Jamie Lynn Spears incident and in their "role" as the collective quintessential wisdom of womanhood, held forth on the official opinion of the nation concerning the child "role model" Jamie Lynn. One Female Ascended Master commented on the fact that Jamie's mother had written a book on the tried and true methods she had used to raise Brit and Jamie and one of the extraordinarily wise girls on the panel postulated that Mrs. Spears writing a book on child rearing was the equivalent of Jeffery Dahmer writing a Cook Book. And then our girl of the hour took the bull by the horns and in my opinion stated the case as well as it can be posited:

"The only role model your children should be looking to is you, the parent."

Thank you Professor Goldberg. Professor Whoopi Goldberg. With a decent hairdo Dr. Goldberg could go places!

Parent, life will not permit you to shirk your responsibility in lieu of some teen, super star athlete or even clergyperson. The onus is on you and it is past time that we parents and grandparents take back our God given responsibility from those who use our loved ones as dupes to line their own pockets. As to Jamie, why not forgive her and get on with life.

Larry Lilly Copyright � 2008 Use with credit.

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