Physics Guy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 2:27 pm
Children, especially young ones, are often selfish, impatient, and inconsiderate.
It's not really their fault that they're that way. They don't know any better. They feel their own desires and injuries strongly, and don't really understand that other people have needs and feelings as well. So I guess that's being pure, in a way. I can't blame a small child for being self-centered.
At the same time I wouldn't say that young children are good people by anything like the standards one expects of adults. In that sense, I could accept saying that humans are all sinful from birth. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it,
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. ... We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done ... .
I'm only noticing now, many years since I last recited anything from the BCP, that a certain amount of following our own devices and desires could apparently be fine, according to the Prayer of Confession. The problem is that we do it too much.
Physics guy, I agree in some ways but not in others. Some children are selfish, they are territorial, and can be mean to other children; others only see starlight and have an innate sense of goodness and ability to share with other children. Some are drawn to harming others while others are drawn towards helping others. I think it depends a lot on their birth code and at times the parents and their example, but not always. Chemicals that flow from actions may also be involved.
For me as a child I was too nice and helpful. My baseball coaches knew this and wanted me to be meaner and so wanted me to sign up for full contact tackle football in the off-season. It was at age 10, around 1971. I did fine until tackling drills started and then I didn’t want to participate. I’m not too good on angles but if someone is running from 3:00 to 9:00 and at the same distance one is running with the ball from 6:00 to 12:00 they are going to meet right in the middle The adults, born in the late ‘30s and early 40s loved the sound of helmets striking each other as most of those running turned towards the other person at the last moment. Water-helmets were the new thing, and they were supposed to prevent head injuries. This wasn’t me and never would be.
I was almost the tallest guy on the team but didn’t make the first cut. It was embarring to tell my friends on my street who played on the team I got cut. They just said don’t worry about it. My off-season baseball coach immediately traded me to another team. That team I was then playing for didn’t do a lot for my esteem and caused many issues. I believe those tackling drills are now called targeting and will get a player ejected from the game.
At church I also had to deal with bullies in our ward while in scouts and scout activities. But what did I do at that time to cause Christ pain, was I broken and in need of godly sorrow and repentance? I knew the bullies in the church might have caused Christ pain if the church were true which was said numerous times during the week. I didn't know. Maybe it was watching the 1962 black and white film Gypsy Rose Lee with Natalie Wood that did it. I was now 14 and in love with her.
Today, I would say, hey, you had so many tools at home that could have put the bullying to a complete halt; tools that our dad used at times on real bad guys, and you could have taken one or two of them and put the bullies in their place, on your street or at church, but that wasn't me or the code that I was born with.
“One of the important things for anybody in power is to distinguish between what you have the right to do and what is right to do." Potter Stewart, associate justice of the Supreme Court - 1958 to 1981.