Today’s writing may be a little laid back. I’ve got three boys playing a game box and shooting each other with nerf guns. lol, I love snow days:)
OK…..
So I’ve been thinking along the line of how we as individuals come to set our own levels of standards. Differences can clearly be noticed if you just take time and watch people who are in your small corner of the world. Even if we look at a family unit, not all members make the same choices nor have the same reaction to everyday life experiences. So being raised in the same household is not the sole influence that we base our standards on. I do believe this plays a significant role however.
In my limited brainstorming today, I’ve come to reason with what I think to be basically four influences we as society draw from to set the level of performance in which we function at. Again, these are just my personal ideas that I”m putting together because I feel too many (myself included) have become accustomed to functioning at or below average competence.
The first influences we have in life would be of course, our parents. They are the first who says “no” to doing this, “yes” to doing that. Have you ever been to a department store and seen a couple with four or more kids and they are all well behaved? You can tell those parents take time to instruct their children. Then there are those whom we see that may have just one or two kids. My thought is, ok parenting a few kids should be a little easier than parenting a half dozen, so these parents should have well behaved kids. Still, we see some of those kids running around and grabbing at everything their hands can reach. By the time we leave the store we know their kids name because the parents spent the whole time shopping just yelling at them. Are the children to blame for misbehaving like that? I don’t believe so. Yet it’s because of poor parenting that some kids do not have a good grasp on proper behavior, while other kids are given the opportunity to learn appropriate child like behavior. So for the first influence I would call it ‘Family Standards’.
Not every family is a part of the second idea that I”m thinking of, ‘Biblical Standards.’ Some families participate in a church setting and take from it beliefs that it’s leaders teach from the Bible.home, Each church is different, so each family who attends church does not necessarily have the same teachings, so the common denominator of having a Christ-Like home does not mean the Smiths and the Jones homes are being structured the same way. The family members will have their own philosophies. I do believe that this environment does play a big role in a person’s life, if they hold to what they’ve been taught. I also believe an individual can be raised outside of the church and have a much higher degree of integrity than one who was raised in church. It all comes down to each persons choices as they reach the age of accountability. Right now though I”m simply listing what I believe to be our Environmental Influences.
In thinking about the third influence, I think I’ll title it ‘Community Standards’. In the early years this would begin in a Pre-School type setting and in Primary Education. Then of course continuing through High School and so forth. Once degrees are earned, the work place is entered. In the secular world, one encounters a variety of coworkers and with each comes a different mind set, different ideas of what is socially acceptable. That is mixed in with what is expected from the company in which you work for. So many factors play into this area. I would say it’s the most broad range of the four in today’s blog. It does lead us to number four, the last and most important part of life that we draw from that is our gage in setting the standard in which we function.
Once we reach an age of accountability, we choose for ourselves if we will be men/women of integrity. A deliberate decision is made by each, even without our awareness. We decide what level to functions at. Below average, average, above average. A choice can be made to continually raise the bar, to strive to more than maintain what the community standards call acceptable, or what a watered down church calls Biblical. A person can be raised by the most disciplined parents, go to a church and school that has high expectations of its students and members, and even work for a company that is well known for high leadership skills and exceptional results, yet he/she chooses to live a mediocre life. If comes down to what I believe to be the forth part of todays writing, ‘Personal Standards’. No one can choose another’s personal standards! It’s up to each individual to choose for himself.
So to sum up my thoughts…..
Our influences come from basically four environmental areas:
Family Standards
Biblical Standards
Community Standards
Personal Standards
(Please forgive any errors, lol I can hardly hear myself think with the fun snow day we are having:) )
dustylynn73 