Mayan Calendar

Looks like the Mayan’s got it wrong.  Not to surprising coming from a people that didn’t see their own demise as a civilization coming.  This holiday season is a good time to take a lesson from the Mayan’s and reflect upon our own blessings and shortcomings. A good time for us Americans to avoid going the way of the Mayans into extinction as a civilization.

The religious holidays are so important for us to take stock in the blessings we have in God, family, and nation. We are blessed with a generous God that has given us and our country abundances and freedom. We are blessed to have forefathers who were divinely inspired in giving us a governmental framework that would make us the envy of the world. We have also been blessed with the strength of diversity of races and cultures.  What was our strength is now being used as our weakness; our diversity is what differed us in the first place and that made us different and great.

We are blessed with an ancestry like the George Washington, who against great odds fought for our independence and the birth of this great country we call home. Our early settlers didn’t look to government for support or guidance; they took life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the max. They loaded covered wagons with their families, all their possessions, and some provisions and headed west. West through Indian Territory, literally risking their scalps to pursue happiness, never once looking to the then small government for any kind of assistance.  They took responsibility for every aspect of their lives and their deaths.

Our ancestors were can do people with a spirit of self-improvement second to none in the history of mankind. Even during the darkest eras of American history, slavery; our black ancestors did not wither in the face of terrible hardship but rather pressed on with their strong will, faith and spirit of self-reliance. If not for their spirit and sacrifice, that dark chapter of American history may still be going on today.

These holidays are about spiritual celebration regardless of your individual beliefs.  Jesus, regardless if you are Christian or not, had great social value as a role model for how we should conduct our lives. Jesus didn’t look to any one else but God for guidance especially the government of his time. He saw himself as the provider to others not having others provide for him. He chartered his own course through life, not the course of government. He clearly displayed that God’s laws supersedes man’s laws and gave his life for his belief.  Much like our very own ancestors who risked it all for us to be able to live this blessed life as American’s today.

Are we not shaming our ancestry by blaming everything we perceive to be wrong with our lives on whatever is convenient at the time? It’s like the soup on the menu is, “Excuse de Jour.” One day it’s the Democrats the next the Republican’s or its inanimate objects like guns, video games, government, schools…….  Have we become a nation of excuses that would shame our, ‘get it done regardless of the price and effort,’ forefathers and ancestors? We have let our fears control our lives instead of us controlling our fears.

The Americans that came before us had a clear and defined belief in right and wrong regardless of religion, race, or any other divisive stereotypes mankind concocts. For us to not go the way of the Mayans we must take a good hard look in the mirror as individuals that comprise the family we call America. We must be accountable for our actions and not rely on our government as the example Christ gave us in his daily life here on earth. We must clearly know right and wrong and chose right over wrong. We must be aware we share this country with 300 million plus other people and try not to infringe on others to the best of our abilities. We must quit blaming anything and everything for our shortcomings as individuals.

For us to go forward as a prosperous nation we must first believe we are a nation and not 300 million plus people just occupying the same space.  Or we can do nothing and stay the current course and we will surely be seen like the Mayans as a late great failed civilization. The self-esteem of a nation is the reflection of the collective self-esteems of its individuals. Our forefathers were divinely inspired in creating this nation, so we owe it to them to be divinely inspired to maintain it.