Prodigal Sons

love

In life people all take a beating.

One story from the Bible is about the Prodigal Son.

Prodigal - meaning wasteful and lavish.

The story goes that a father gave one son his inheritance and he went out into the world and wasted it.
As long as he had money he had friends and when the money was gone he ended up with nothing so he went home.
Just like the person who had sex without love, he castrated himself by spending his inheritance and ended up with nothing.

Even as a servant, his Father fed and paid better than the life he led without money in the outside world.


So he came back and his Father was so happy he gave him a fat calf and a ring.

This act hurt the son who stayed behind and worked to preserve the Fathers wealth and made it grow.

The story is simple and teaches or is supposed to teach that all three, father and two sons were prodigal.

To me the word prodigal refers to inheritance and finance but in this story it refers to feelings and actions as well.


The philosophy lies in between the times this story was told and todays world where a lot of things have changed.

In todays world those who do bad seem to be rewarded. We see this in families collecting social welfare for their mistakes,dead beat dads who keep going on making kids and women fighting over them, knowing full well they can't hold onto them.
We see this in private firms such as banks, insurance companies, Government, charity groups, churches and temples and companies selling stocks where CEO's help themselves to the money people entrust to them to do the right thing.

We see prodigal sons everywhere in this world, being rewarded for "mistakes".

The horrible difference lies in the fact that it is one thing when one makes an honest mistake and needs teaching to know the difference and quite another thing, when one goes to make mistakes knowing full well that they are doing wrong. This is not a mistake anymore.

If we are all prodigal sons, then where is the truth?
Where is the love?

When will society learn to live by example. Our children learn from the past. If there is nothing to teach, they will stop learning.

You cannot go through life making up excuses for bad behavior. If it is all ok, then there is nothing left to teach.