Recent articles and commentaries published in the Opinion section of the Standard-Examiner cause this septuagenarian to wonder if any of the authors are aware of the opportunity choice gives them? Challenges present opportunities to overcome them. The lure of this appears everywhere in our society as we see more people climbing Mt. Everest, more Ninja warrior training facilities, more people tuning in to contests that test mental, physical, social, or spiritual acuity. Then why not take the challenge to attend Church, or to practice sobriety, or civility, kindness, or to not take offense at every turn?

For example, one need not feel completely powerless on the Sabbath Day. A person can choose to attend Church instead of doing some other thing. That choice can be made despite the actions of any other person or persons. At this point we still are free to exercise the right to worship. In fact, we can overcome even our own reticence and whatever challenges Church attendance may bring to still attend Church meetings. God has given us the power to act rather than be acted upon.

Hence there are no valid excuses for not attending Church that draw any sympathy from me. I have probably thought of and felt them all over my 70 years, all the possible reasons not to attend, and conclude through experience that rarely does any one of them keep me from attending if I so choose. Perhaps in the future this shall be known as the whining, crying, self-pitying, truly Spoiled generation, GenSp. Surely that generation often referred to as America’s greatest, that took on the challenges of the WWII Era, must be appalled.

Please publish more commentaries with solutions to, not sympathy for, the challenges that confront living a sane, moral, less self-centered life.

Darrel Thompson

Ogden

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