It used to be that many public elementary schools’ principals would have the golden rule hanging on a wall in their offices. Today it is unlikely that we would find many school principals in any public or private setting who have any Bible Scriptures hanging on their walls.

It used to be that schoolteachers—both saved and unsaved—would quote and teach the significance of the golden rule, whenever they had to reprimand misguided children who bullied or harassed others. Nowadays it is unlikely that we would find many Christian or nonbelievers who are educators in today’s schools that quote and teach the importance of any biblical principles, even though the number of misguided children needing to be reprimanded is far greater than it used to be.

Without a doubt, the do unto others as you would have them do unto you principle has become the “I’m going to get you got FIRST” declaration for many adults. Consequently, children now bring guns to school, and they now disrespect adults and their peers. They also curse, rob, lie and kill on the same level as some of this world’s most hardened criminals. The fact that moral standards are not being enforced in their schools, homes and communities is the fundamental reason why more and more of today’s young people are embracing—as their own way of life—the ungodly behaviors they observe in movies, on television programs, in their homes, in their schools, in the streets, in their churches, and so forth.

Based on this world’s current state of affairs, we who believe in the Lord’s golden rule need to reclaim our young people. Let us save our babies from killing babies. Let us teach our youth how to treat themselves—and others—with love, dignity and respect.

We know that it often is easier to teach by example—more so than it is to teach what we neither believe in nor live. That is why we who are Christ followers not only need to frame, hang, quote and/or skywrite the golden rule, but also we first need to illustrate its principle by daily living it. We need to be Christian parents, mentors, pastors, worship leaders, community leaders, schoolteachers, school officials, politicians, and etcetera, who truly demonstrate moral, ethical, holy and righteous living. Let us be the genuine Christlike individuals our youth need to emulate. Shalom.

“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” ~ Lk 6:31

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

~ a devotion from my book – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind