Harvest

I'm back. Sorry that I have not written in a while. I have been "investigating my subject" for the past couple weeks. That is, I have been hunting like crazy. Today weather is raining, snowing, blowing and just downright miserable, so I thought I should write something. One nice thing about hunting is that it allows one to sit and think for hours about anything the heart desires. Lately I have been thinking a lot about this political season and how the outcome will affect us as a family and a nation. I think about how our country's decisions will affect my son. I have only one son. His name is Benito Frank. We call him Bubba, or sometimes Bubs for short name. He is 4 years old and is the pride and joy of my life. I always envisioned having a son even before I was married. To me, he is a beautiful boy. I have many hopes and dreams for Bubs. I hope he is tall like his mom's family and I hope he develops wide shoulders from my side of the family. Maybe he will be a good linebacker at Ohio State. More importantly, he will forever carry our family name into the future generation. I wish for him to carry that name with pride and honor. Bubba was given the middle name of Frank, in honor of my father. Carl Frank has been a good father to me. Dad endured many hardships throughout his life. The two that have stood out among all others is his financial difficulties in the early '80s and a deep rift in his relationship to his brothers. Dad never gave me much direct advice on how to live my life, but rather showed me how to live through his own actions. The older I grow, the more my respect and love for my father grows. As his strength fails, his wisdom seems to abound. I wonder what I could tell Bubs about his grandfather's life and my life that could help him wade through all the problems of life, especially when it comes to politics. Doesn't it seem as if there are problems and scandal in every aspect of government? How is it that our nation has come to such a melting pot of troubled times? We have come to a moment in history when we cannot trust anyone in government. They promise one thing and then once elected, do whatever they want with no regard to the people or their promises. How is all this possible? I have come to the conclusion that we have become a society that lives with no regard to consequences. We have become a consequence-free society. This theory of mine filters into almost every aspect of our culture. Let's discuss a few areas where we think we are consequence free. Every action has a consequence, intended or not. Every decision has a result, whether we want it or not. Look at the personal decisions people make. If you drop out of school, you probably will not achieve financial success. Yet the government will help alleviate the problem by offering welfare and other financial support. No consequence. How about the man that chooses to sleep with as many women as possible? The consequence is you have child support payments out the wassoo. Or he could contract a STD. Once again, government will step in and "help" or health insurance will pay big money to "fix" the medical issue, passing the financial consequence to all of us. Look at the woman who chooses to have 5 kids, each with a different father. She is labeled a single mom, and is entitled to all sorts of benefits to help avoid the consequences. The man who smokes is likely to get cancer. The person who drinks too much is likely to have a DUI, or worse kill someone on the road. Insurance will cover the cost of rehab, allowing the offender to live consequence free. The drunk driver will have his wrists slapped on the first offence, and often he continues in his course of action as if nothing is wrong with his decisions. We have a local TV station that airs the city courthouse proceedings daily. Daily you can see a string of DUI arrests, always defiant of the charge. But rarely is it a first offence. Usually it is a 3rd, 4th or 5th offence. Recently, a man was charged with his 13th DUI in the last 12 years. That is more than once a year! Where are the consequences for this man? You see, son, all decisions in life have a result to follow. We would live much better lives if we would remember this. If you choose to get up late for work, you might get fired. If you do, don't blame the company or your boss, just accept the consequences of your own actions and change your behavior in the future. Too many people try to escape or argue their way out of the path of results. They claim injustice, unfairness and racial discrimination. The fact is that the quality of our lives reflect the way we chose to live. This brings me to the next point. Risk. All decisions have a certain element of risk involved. In business, each decision has a level of risk, and you must decide if the risk is acceptable or unacceptable. For example, look at all the banks that have been financially "rescued" by the government. They made bad decisions on who to lend money to. High risk. And the result was that the loans defaulted and the bank was in financial distress. But hey, no worries, the government came in and used taxpayer money to help out the situation. How did they suffer the consequence of their poor decisions? They didn't, but we, as taxpayers, did. And now we face an election where both candidates are promising more give-aways to people and businesses that should face the music for their decisions. Especially "that one." Barack wants to give the poor money that they have not earned, medical attention that they do not deserve and rights not afforded to them in our constitution. He wants less people to suffer any consequences, and effectively will deprive them of the opportunity to "learn from their mistakes." One speech stand out in my mind above all others from his campaign. He said that if his daughters made a "mistake", he did not want them to be "punished" with a baby. That is ludicrous. If he would teach his daughters about the consequences of sex a little more, he may be able to avoid the "punishment." So his idea of solving an unexpected pregnancy is to murder the baby, the most innocent of all. But his mentality is a reflection on our society. Live as you want to, avoid the consequences later. Or better yet, just delete the consequences. In the end, government runs much like your average household. So if our society in general thinks that we can make bad decisions (financially, morally, spiritually) and no consequence will follow, then our government leaders will operate much in the same way. I believe that this train of thought leads to socialism, the opposite of personal freedom. And so I pass on this thought to my most cherished son Bubba, to live your life with a thoughtful mind to the consequences of decisions and actions. The results of your life will affect many others as well as yourself. muddyknife Galations 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."