What has happened to us?

It occured to me after leaving Starbucks this morning (after hitting the gym that is, --for some odd reason I feel impowered to HAVE starbucks coffee after going to the gym) that we live in a day and age that when someone extends a common courtesy such as holding the door open for the next person behind you, we are put in such a state of shock and dismay we almost don't know how to say thank you. This was the case today. As I was leaving Starbucks I held the door open for the woman behind me who seemed shocked more then words can describe.

Neek recently brought it to my attention that if a woman is crossing the road a man driving a car will be more likely to stop and allow a woman to cross the road then he would be for a man. If you put a woman behind that same vehicle and keep the sex the same on the road, she WONT stop for the other woman. Thats just SAD.

Years ago in the parenting classes we were teaching in the series "Growing Kids Gods Way" there was a few illustrations of this that we would teach off of. Teaching our children to stand up inside of a bus if an elderly person enters the bus and allow them your seat. (this is difficult to teach in this day and age when the majority of us don't use public transportation .. for simple saftey reasons) The idea of respecting our elders was what we were trying to impart. We would also teach the idea of putting away the grocery cart after filling your car with groceries and not just leaving it by the side of the car. This illustration surprisingly enough would cause major debates. People would struggle seeing that their 'Christianity was at question' for simply not putting away a grocery cart. Of course this wasn't the idea, the idea was to teach our children to be 'others' sensitive and the best way our children can learn is from our example. If we consider others....in this case others vehicles more precious then the 30 seconds of our time to return the shopping cart we are putting others ahead of our selves. A simple illustration, but one that still caused more debates then one could imagine.

I am still shocked when I am treated by a man with what some may call 'old fashioned' ideas. When a man holds the door open for me I almost don't know what to say. I do teach my son this, but for 13 years of my marriage I usually watched the door slam in front of my face. I can remember being on a date a couple of years ago with a man who insisted on walking on the street side of the sidewalk. I didn't understand why until he explained it to me, and again I was shocked to think of someone thinking of me before himself. When I watch Dennis inside of his 'monster' truck get down and quickly walk around to hold the door open to my side of the truck I can't help but smile. He holds the chair for me when I sit down, another one of those simple 'old fashioned' ideas that saddens me to think in a few years the majority of our culture will fad away, unless we the few the simple make an effort to show our children the importances of these simple actions. To think of that small effort required to put a smile on another face, is it really that much of us to ask?