the easy way out easy vs hard easy on who i had a rare very personal talk with my mother last year she said that when she and my father were raising we four children they did not try to raise us in this world as strictly as they were raised in their norwegian lutheran community they felt that we would be alienated from them and it would create problems in other words my parent did the very tolerant loving thing they raised us without conflict without what we saw as unreasonable demands and were always accepting no matter what the circumstances what happened was that i grew up believing in situation ethics and never absolutes i believed in a loving god and my concept of god never involved justice or punishment nor was there any concept that i may someday be held responsible for the things that offended him sins that the world told me were ok my parents are very good honest and moral people they raised four extremely honest children yet before coming to a more complete knowledge of god which includes the knowledge of justice and punishment i committed what i now believe to be many many grave sins i lived with a partner outside of marriage was married and divorced only after physical abuse and no apparent hope for change but i shouldn t have married to person in the first place and more my parents felt they were doing the loving kind thing by allowing us to be who we were by not imposing their standards on us and by accepting unquestioningly everything we did without judgement or counsel today it is absolutely appalling for me to look back on what they did accept without a word it takes courages to dare to help souls because you must speak up and say what is unpopular and difficult and what people do not want to hear you must be able to say what is hard and say it as christ would with love and compassion it involves risk perhaps someone you love may not want to hear and will stay away from you this life is but dust as long as the comfort of this life is our highest priority we will fail god and fail those with whom we come in contact i wonder how many who engage in sex outside of marriage who support the right to abortion who engage in homosexuality or who commit any of the range of sins that are plentiful in this time have ever heard from a quiet thoughtful loving friend that these things are wrong no one ever told me that what i was doing was wrong and i saw multitudes around me living the same way i was and they seemed like good decent people wouldn t kick dogs or beat the elderly or babies it is more difficult for sinners without a genuine prayer life to hear the holy spirit than it is to hear a loving friend think about this the next time the holy spirit tells you that a friend is in error but you don t want to cause trouble righteous prayers is great power but don t forget that we are we are christ s lips and hands on earth don t be afraid to simply voice truth when the situation calls for it say a fervent prayer and ask the holy spirit for love and guidance in more ways than we may realize we are our brother s keeper in jesus and mary elizabeth
