The role of children in the community is just as important as that of adults. A community without well-taught children cannot prosper. As a foundation is to a building, children are the hope of the community. If the foundation is weak, the building cannot last long. If the children are led astray, the community and its values will be forgotten. Therefore, elders in the community must lead the children to proper maturity. Elders can do the following two things:
Preserve Godly Moral Values
There’re all sorts of views in our so-called modern societies of today. In fact, we’re living the idea-sick era. In all fields, views and opinions are a common way to access knowledge. Unfortunately, this isn’t always working for the profit of mankind. Everyone wants to live by his/her own self-manufactured rules, regulations and standards. There’s no agreement on what’s right or wrong. Good societal traditions and norms are violated and replaced with a laissez-faire attitude. As seep without a shepherd disperse, everyone is going his own way.
Therefore, elders and parents in the community must acquire and preserve Godly moral values and pass them down to their children. If the foundational principles of life are neglected and trampled upon by members of a society, nothing good can come out of that society. For this reason, people in many communities seek only their personal gain and not the prosperity of all members of the community. The first way to preserve and promote love and selfless service in a community is, therefore, to teach our children Godly moral principles and ensure that everyone lives by them.
Identify And Preserve Community Values
Community values are those things that render the community unique and different from others. Community values allow people to identify themselves with their community and work hard for its progress. There’re two main types of community values – the good and bad community values.
Good community values, on the one hand, are physical or spiritual resources, traditions or activities unique to a community that don’t contradict Godly moral standards. For instance, some communities are known for their hard work. Others are identified by their acceptance of foreigners. Some villages are well known for their unique agricultural practices and products and others for cooking delicious dishes. Many communities in the world are known for their natural resources such as minerals, clean water, volcanoes, lagunes, seas, caves, mountains, rivers, streams, medicinal plants, etc. Few communities are remembered for harbouring diverse and rare species of living creatures such as carnivores, birds, crustaceans, annelids, fishes, insects, amphibians, reptiles, etc.
Bad community values, on the other hand, are those physical or spiritual resources, traditional practices or activities unique to a community but that contradict Godly moral standards. For instance, some communities are well-known for child trafficking, child labour, paedophilia, sex slavery, forced labour, forced marriage, terrorism, corruption, witchcraft, human sacrifices, cultic and occultic practices, etc. Some traditional values and cultures involve animal blood sacrifices, invocation of demons and the casting of magical and demonic spells to intimidate or influence people.
Our children need to know the good values in their community and promote them. Nevertheless, this wouldn’t happen except the parents and elders in the community serve as examples they can emulate.
Conclusion
Did you ever think of embracing Godly moral values in your life, family or community? What are the main values in your own community? These are important questions elders and children must answer if they intend to influence their communities positively. Some people are born into certain bad, closed and wicked traditions, habits and systems. Many of them think their actions and deeds are right. However, they need to embrace Godly moral values to better appreciate life and make value out of it.
Passing by the Eiffel Tower, we could observe thousands upon thousands of tourists from the four corners of the globe just to see this conical structure. Millions of people travel to Paris yearly bringing in billions of Euros in revenue into the city. The Eiffel Tower is the brand of the city.
Your spiritual and physical Community resources are your brand as a community. When people see or hear about your community, they immediately know what you can offer. The questions are – what can you offer as a community? Are you teaching your children these things?
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