Flipping through a parenting magazine an ad caught my attention, it read: “Teach your kids not to share.” Can you imagine such a headline in a parenting magazine? Teach your kids not to share would not make the top ten list of parental suggestions in my book.
My eyes jumped right over the images of the ad and went to the subtext. “Sharing is for other cars.” I soon learned the advertisement promoted a new car’s features which included dual video screens for the front passengers as well as a separate entertainment system for the rear passengers in this seven-passenger car. Therefore, in theory (and now in practice) parents with several children can entertain them differently during those trips to the city or to the grandparent’s house.
After my initial response, I became more and more appalled by the title of the ad rather than the promotion of the actual product. Sure car companies are trying to include tons of optional features – anything to sell a car, right? The engineers are probably hitting upon an emotional element as much as a practical one this video age. And what parent has not tried to entertain two or more children at the same time without much success?
Yet, I cannot get past the title, “Teach your kids not to share.” Whether a parent buys into the marketing or not it at least places a subliminal message into their head. That message creates the opinion that sharing is optional, even when the most basic of human development is formulated.
Take the message of the ad out about thirty years from now, how might the unsharing generation live? Do they offer compassion or sensitivity to people suffering, or do they simply say, “I have all the comfort I need, go and get your own.” Do they contribute their time, talents, and capability to worthy causes, or do they focus exclusively upon satisfying their own interests. Forget the politeness of opening the doors for others or waiting patiently in line at the grocery stores; I see this unsharing as self-focused, uncaring, uninvolved, unmoved, and indifferent to the plight and struggles of anyone else.
Let us take the scenario one step further. How would you like a church full of unsharing people (that is if they went to church at all). A congregation grown on the idea of serving oneself and caring little for others would be a pretty dead place. The Dead Sea gets its name because it is 1,300 feet below sea level and it contains the saltiest water on the planet – 35 percent. Also, the Dead Sea is completely landlocked so it has no way of discharging its water; therefore, it keeps getting more concentrated. A church made up of unsharing people never reaches out, never assist, and they never share.
I contend it would be the most unbiblical church and question whether the people even read the Bible. Over one thousand times the scriptures characterize God as a caring, sharing, giving God who seeks the best for his children. Not only does it tells us God gives but he instructs us to be caring, sharing and giving people. The Apostle Paul tried his best to live out his faith as Jesus instructed, that is why he said, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35). The gospel of Christ is a message to be shared, not to be kept to one’s self. That is why we in the church will always counter the world’s ways by teaching our children to share.
Remember to attend church this week and share your presence at the sharing place,
