Conservative

That word came to my mind a while ago and I started to ponder it. Conservative. What does it mean? Most people would probably call us a "conservative family". Some may even say we are too conservative. So I decided to look the word up. According to Webster's 1828 dictionary, conservative means: "Preservative; having power to preserve in a safe or entire state, from loss, waste or injury" Hmmm, to put it in my own parenting words here...we parent our children in such a way as to preserve them in a safe state from loss, waste or injury. How do we do that? Well we try to limit the amount of worldly garbage that goes in to their minds. Yes, it is out there and yes, they do end up hearing and seeing things that aren't good but that doesn't mean we should invite it into our homes and give it a place on our television screen or music or books. What a waste of precious brain space when we fill it up with gargage. Scripture says "Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, think on these things." Philippians 4:8. What a loss of prescious innocence when our children see things and hear foul language. Have you ever noticed how easily we all retain bad things? Why is that? We can hear ten good things and one bad thing and it will be the bad thing that rattles around in our heads. So we try as best as we are able, definitely not perfectly, to protect our children from the loss of their precious innocence. What injury can result when we allow our children to casually date and give pieces of their heart away to people who probably will not end up being their future spouse!! What injury can result when we allow our children to play with children who delight in doing evil and choose activities that are dangerous physically, mentally and spiritually!! Don't you think life is hard enough when we grow up? Why do we as a culture seem to think it is okay and even necessary to throw all that stuff at our children before they are ready to handle it? I like the way Kelly Bates puts it on one of the Duggar's shows..."sheltering our children is like not putting a plant outside before it is ready but protecting it until it has roots and is mature"(my quote is not exact). Given all of that, I choose Conservative!