The Lost Virtues of life.

            With all the tech advances in society in the last hundred years something has been lost. That something are virtues that people use to take pride in exhibiting. Though a few virtues like being able to work hard, and being organized never go out of fashion. But one virtue in this age of seemingly endless plenty is the notion of being frugal. If you are frugal in this day and age chances are you are part of a very small minority. We seem to live in an age of excess driven by the endless promotions of corporations. Corporations are not going to tell us to be frugal, no they want us to spend our hard earned money on their products. Granted this is all part of living in a capitalist world. But a world in which we are free to choose which products to buy. Or rather whether or not how frugal we wish to be. Frugal doesn’t mean we don’t like to spend money. Rather to be frugal can also mean a person prefers to save and invest their money to build it up for a later time.

    Another virtue that would have been taken for granted in another time period would be to be independent. People rely so much on government for some kind of assistance or protection from hateful speech rather than to think for themselves as to how to get by in this world. Then you have younger generations who rely on their parents for support far longer than used to be the norm. Young people seem set the all or nothing attitude. They want a job in a certain field or no job at all, and are content to live off the good will of others until they find that “perfect” job.

    Which leads me to mention another of those forgotten virtues. Responsibility. People seem to have forgotten how to be responsible and accept responsibility for themselves and their families. Responsible people focus on getting the basic needs of their family taken care of. Those basic needs are a roof over their heads. Food on the table. Clothes to wear. People shouldn't ignore their responsibility in getting these basics for their family, and expect big government to provide them. That's a sign of laziness. Or to have money but take government assistance all the same might be thought of as theft. Why get food assistance if you wear fancy clothes and drive a seemingly expensive car? Why pay with food stamps if you are showing off your seemingly abundant wealth? You should be paying with cash not with a government card for those groceries. 

Much could be said about responsibility and the need for people to take care of their own spiritual life. Just like getting the necessities of life so too must a person accept responsibility for their own spiritual well being. It’s not up to some aunt to pray for you and your redemption. A person must make that effort themselves.

Responsibility is such a big word that weighs a lot on people. Sometimes it's almost too much for some.