Words in themselves have no meaning, the words need to have some type of foundation. A word can be used in a medical journal and have one meaning. That same word can be used again by a comedian on stage and have a completely different meaning. Children are born into this world without words. It is the responsibility of parents and guardians to fill the mouths and souls with words. For that reason, one of the most important aspects of parenthood or bringing up of a child is what words to establish in them, what foundation do we give them?
What do we base our philosophy on; where do we get our bearings from? In our pluralistic society there are thousands of ideas and information sources we can pull from. There are politically correct thinkers that dictate what our words and actions should be as parents. There are those who think that we should not teach a child a certain religion, set of ideas or philosophy, we should just let that child decide when they are adults how they should believe. There are a thousand voices coming from every direction expressing views on what words we should use, and how we should use them.
In all that noise where is truth? What is truth? There has been much debate about the history, accuracy and words of the Bible. There are scoffers and fanatics that misrepresent it, and it has for the most part been outlawed from our schools, and downgraded by our society. But as we hear all the voices, listen to all the scoffers, it comes down to this question: Does the Bible represent truth?
If the Bible does not represent truth, what book does? Universities of higher learning throughout the world have a common history, all or most had the Bible as the basis of their starting foundation. That claim cannot be made about any other book on earth, religious or otherwise. But, in each case someone came along and wanted to improve on the truth. With each passing year the truth was forgotten or buried. Slowly year after year the prevailing wisdom covered up the foundations of Biblical truth like ivy covering a forgotten grave. But somewhere, written in stone on one of the original buildings of that college or university, is a scripture from the Bible.
The foundation is the most important aspect of any building; it is the building block upon which everything else is built.
Matthew 7:24
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will
be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell,
and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house,
but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And
everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And
the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
I was once asked a question about life. The way the question was asked, made me stop and think how I should answer. The question was “What are you doing to insure your failure?” That question was asked to me about my career, but the more I contemplated that question, the more I realized its truth. Most of the time we make important decisions that do insure our failure. So as I started applying that question to different aspects of my life, I realized it would also apply to the foundation of my family as well, so I ask myself, what am I doing that will insure the failure of my family? To answer that question I realized I did not have the power in myself not to fail. I had to base my actions and philosophy on a larger truth, a truth larger than me, a truth larger than this world.
The truth of the Bible transcends this life and gives us a point in which to head. Even though we may lose our way, if we build on its foundational truths, and follow its wisdom, we will find that it may not be the easiest route but it will always be best!