Thoughtful Thursday: O Captain, My Captain!

I'm sure by now you have heard about the cruise ship that ran aground off the Italian coast. Yet another reason to add to my growing list of reasons why I never want to take a cruise: falling overboard, running aground, getting food poisoning.

I'm sure you've heard about the heroic captain who stayed with the ship until every last man, woman, and child was safe in a lifeboat. What's that you say? You didn't hear about the heroic captian? Well, that's because he wasn't on board. He had tripped, fallen into a lifeboat, and could not get back on the ship. And that is his real excuse.

If you read the transcript between the coast guard and the captian, they are basically begging, then threatening him to return to his ship, but he refuses. He refuses to do what is the honorable thing to do, the right thing to do.

And while I'm not a ship's captain, I am the "co-captain" of my family. And while my children and husband aren't in peril of physical death because of my less than honorable actions, you have to wonder what kind of lessons they are learning by my less than honorable moments.

• When I ask my daughter to tell the telemarketer on the phone that I'm not home because I really can't deal with it right now. Am I teaching her it's okay to lie sometimes?
• When I forget to pay for the water bottle that we grabbed when we walked in Wal-Mart but don't want to unload everyone from the car to go back in and do the right thing. Am I teaching them it's okay to steal?
• When I yell at the TV or call the referees names as I'm watching college football. Am I teaching them that being mean and rude is allowed in certain circumstances?
• When I make "jokes" about other people or ethnicities. Am I teaching my family that God truly loves everyone?

While the leader of that cruise ship has the title of "captain," I think that everyone can agree that he didn't live up to the expectation that his title holds. We need to do make sure that our lives match up to our title. If you call yourself "Christian" then you need to act like it. If you call yourself the "head of your family," then be one. If you call yourself a "helpmeet", then do it.

And if you want your children to see you as someone to follow and respect, then do the honorable things and the right things all the time. Even when you're embarassed, afraid, or just don't want to. That's how you keep your family from running aground.

Sailing in smooth, open water in the treehouse,

Chelli