Last night I heard of a young mother who has recently moved to our town. She is separated from her husband, has two children ages five and seven, and is looking for a job to support them.
As our friend told the others who sat in our living room of her plight, we all agreed it was a difficult situation, but dismissed the discussion with the usual remark, "Whata shame--there is so much of that these days, isn't there?"
This morning, I was considering how we have become a people of accommodations. We have learned to accept so many things as the norm that we have lost our sensitivity to the pain of others. We have accepted the downward spiral in morals, one by one, without heeding what it is doing to us or where we are heading. We accommodate first one thing, then another, then yet another.
As I thought about this young mother, I remembered my own situation many years ago. But times were different then, and being a single parent was not the norm. Because it didn't happen often, my church, my town, and my relatives were ready and willing to assist me. The help came in financial as well as emotional support, and two older women offered to pray for me each morning--which ended up being 14 years.
What I am saying is that I had stable surroundings and people who cared about our plight. I had not had to pull up my roots to move to another area, thereby cutting off the help of my friends. There was always someone to whom I could turn. This woman of whom I write is completely alone. She must adjust to a new job--if and when she can find one. It is doubtful that she has people who will be faithful in praying for her. Her children will have to fend for themselves much of the time. She must make her own decisions in regard to proper discipline for her children, and will probably put herself on a million guilt trips about her methods.
The situation of this mother is even more difficult because nobody pays any attention to her plight. We shrug our shoulders and leave her alone.
We have become desensitized to wrongs in our entire social system, and we feel utterly helpless to do anything about them. But in shrugging off our responsibilities, we are personally falling into the landslide of social downfall. People have become so hardened to television violence that they can sit hour upon hour watching without any emotion. They allow their children to watch cartoons which are an initiation into witchcraft and sorcery. Instead of standing firm on their beliefs, they allow their children to 'stay overnight' with their boy-friends, reluctantly saying "This is the way the kids are now-a-days"
A single parent faced with raising her children in a pagan setting, plus the onus of earning a living, is too heavy a burden for one person to carry. She will need to pray that God will send her helpers. This prayer will reach the hearts of those with compassion and understanding.
So when you and I feel a gentle urge to help such a person, it may be because someone is praying that help will come. Let us be sure that we have not become so hardened and desensitized to the needs around us that we will fail to respond.
May we remember that Jesus said, "Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward" (Matt.10:42 NKJ).
Let us not accommodate to the sin around us, but stand firm in our Christian faith with its commandment to love one another (John 13:34)!
© 1999, Doreen Palmer