We Tell Them Better Than We Show Them

There is concern, of course, for young people, for their problem, and for the permissive way in which some of them sometimes live their lives. But, as one cause of such concern, must we not admit that they are partly the product of the moral and spiritual and physical atmosphere which those who are older have sometimes permitted or made possible(by the actions, the attitudes, the example of others: sometimes parents, teachers; sometimes the makers and sellers of things; the producers and purveyors of unclean entertainment; those who have relaxed the enforcement of law; those who have exploited immodesty, abandoned the moral commandments, and flouted the safeguards of life. In all honesty must we not admit that much of the difficulty of young people comes form the neglect of misguidance of adults(failing to set an example that youth could safely follow. Not that youth are free from responsibility for their own actions and decisions, but some others who should know better must share some responsibility for whatever let-down there is in the quality of life. We tell them better than we show them(and we don’t even tell them as well as we should. Furthermore, we provide more and more for them physically, and less and less morally and spiritually, and leave them often with too little of fruitful activity, forgetting often that they are capable of learning much more, of doing much more, of being much more; and in large measure they will live up to what we expect of them(if we ask it early enough(and show them by the sincerity of the lives we live. We ought to share with them as early as possible the urgen work of the world, and see that they are trusted and challenged with serious service. And as we shape them, we’d better be quite sure that we show them what it is they ought to be, by what we are(because up or down, good or bad, happy or unhappy, moral or immoral, clean or unclean, competent or incompetent, we must share responsibility for how they live their lives. It is good to tell them(but it is absolutely essential to show them.