Judging

Those represent price tags.  What would you write on them?  I mean, what would you buy, and what price would you pay?

It’s important to a lot of people.  According to 2009 figures, more that $140 billion dollars is spent on advertising – in the United States alone. You’ve seen the ads if you’ve watched television or use the internet.  You’ve read the ads if you take newspapers and/or magazines.  You’ve heard the ads if you listen to the radio.

Not all of them are directed at you – some are created directly to appeal to children.  How many of you have a tiny tape recorder (age 2 to 18) who are reached by these ads, come running with an urgency to say “I gotta have …”?

How do you teach children to be discerning, judgmental even, about what is deemed appropriate for them?  Or, do you purchase all they ask for, buying their attention and their love?  I doubt that last one.  Oh, we’ll check the stores for the latest and greatest fad designed to whet their appetites for birthdays or Christmas.  Are we doing them favors for doing so?

How much better is it to teach them that ads and commercials are created by highly paid companies to present their products as absolute necessities for our lives – when they might not be.

We think of Bible verses as applying strictly to our spiritual life, but they are truly for every moment of every day:

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; (Philippians 1:9-10 KJV)

I believe that verse is in context, as is this one, too:

Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. (Psalms 119:66 KJV)

Learning to make such discerning judgments in small things in our life helps us as decision-making grows into ones that affect us for decades.

Those small decisions about what to watch on television, what movies are viewed, what enters our daily lives is within our control. We set the standards ourselves, we set the limits, we set the price tags.

What do we think our time is worth?  What value do we place on the ability to teach our children how to make decisions – ones that will affect relationships, finances, education and their futures?  Give them a firm foundation to build upon.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. (Proverbs 9:9 KJV)

There’s truth in Job’s perception that age brings experiences:

With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. (Job 12:12 KJV)

Find an older couple held in respect by others.  Spend a bit of time with them and learn from their experiences.  They will tell you of learning from errors, learn from theirs, and they will tell you of wise decisions.  Learn from them, too.

By the way – I don’t advertise on my site – it’s strictly not for profit, and I’m not going to benefit if you follow my advice.  It’s simply words from an aged woman who believes the scriptures and prays she fits in Titus 2:

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (Titus 2:3 KJV)