Preach and teach the ideal!
So often in my work I have people who want to disagree or fight with what I do. They use the argument, “But what about .. . . .”
We see it in our work on families – “But what about those who have bad families?” Um, OK. Keep preaching that the ideal situation for a child is in an intact, married mother/father, family. All the social science data abundantly proves that a child is safest, healthiest, happiest, and most successful in this family. So preach and teach the IDEAL.
We see it in our work on parents rights – “But what about those who have bad parents?” Um, OK. Yes, there are some bad parents out there. So help the child, help the parents improve, keep helping them move to the safe, healthy ideal. So preach and teach the IDEAL.
We see it in our work on marriages – “But what about those who never marry?” OK, for most men and women the safest, healthiest, happiest and most successful situation is to be married. Most will, some won’t. But we preach and teach the IDEAL, knowing that not everyone will have that.
We see it in our work to protect unborn babies – “But what about the 12 year old who is raped?” Again, this rare – extremely rare – circumstance does not justify the wholesale murder of millions of babies on the planet. Yes, we provide help, support, love, and healthcare to the child. But again, we preach and teach the IDEAL – knowing that millions of babies will LIVE if we choose life.
That doesn’t make us insensitive to so many out there whose lives don’t fit the best of situations. We love them and care for them and support them. But we continue to teach what is the best circumstance so that our society will strive for the healthiest, safest choices and outcomes. We strive for the best–while knowing that not everyone will reach that. But we know that in reaching for the best, everyone will be better.
We do not teach to encourage unhealthy, unsafe, less-than-ideal choices. Why would we ever do that? We want our society to be a thriving, encouraging, growing society aiming for the best for all of the men, women, and children who want to be safe, healthy, happy, and successful.
So we will continue to teach and preach the IDEAL.
