DECISIONS

Often, an outcry from children and teenagers has been made in regard to politics. The emotionally-based culture in which we live will take a camera into a classroom and ask the students what they think of a president, a war, or a law. Of course, children are designated as pure and innocent; but anybody with half a brain knows that children, in a situation like that, are simply parroting what teachers or their parents have told them. If a child is asked about Washington, he might just say, “Get rid of all the bad people.” What a grand suggestion! (However, only a few people would be left to make the decisions.)

There is a particular reason one must be at least thirty-five years-of-age to be the United States President. There is a reason that age minimums exist for someone to serve in the Legislature. People need to be old enough to be mature, well-thought, and well-educated in order to make decisions that influence society. Emotionally-based choices are usually made in the spur of the moment; anyone would agree that making decisions based on the happenings of the very moment is unwise, whether the decision concerns saving and spending money, making marital decisions, buying real-estate, or taking care of your diet and health.

Our culture loves to advertise emotional issues, while logic and reason seem to be underrated in every situation.

The end result of our decisions is what matters most. In Scripture, God defines the wise decision maker: one who possesses the ability to determine the end result.
Deuteronomy 32:20 “And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.”
Jeremiah 5:31 “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”

We all understand that being able to determine the end result of a given action is vital. The book of Proverbs calls that ability wisdom; wisdom is the ability to see the end result of a given action. To allow children and teenagers to weigh in on moral, legal, and national decisions is the height of stupidity. The Democratic party lives on emotion and the immediate circumstance, rather than using wisdom to see the end result of given actions. Now, we can criticize emotion-based, feeling-motivated decisions, but what about the decision of choosing a church? Allowing teens to weigh in on political matters is no more stupid than adults choosing a church based on how they feel.

To be wise, we must be willing to consider the outcome of our marriage or our child-rearing choices. We need to decide how these choices will affect the world, the homes of our children, and the Judgment Seat of Christ. Our decision to join one church rather than another should be based on eternal reasons, not on feelings or fun, and certainly not because our teenager likes one church better. If we hope to make our decisions based upon wisdom, we ought not to trust those choices to teens. We need to ask ourselves how our decision will affect the end result — a vital question. Whether drugs or adultery, gambling or quitting a job we do not like, we would be wise to consider the end result and to beg God for wisdom enough to identify the right path.

Let us consider the subject of a school shooting. I would suggest that someone who has yet to figure out how to graduate from school not be trusted to have a logical or wise opinion about how to run, much less to protect, a school. The opinion of an uninformed, uneducated youth is of little consequence; but wisdom to know the outcome of a given course should shape our actions.

Deuteronomy 32:29 “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”

Pastor