Born With It

I believe we are all born with certain tendencies. After giving birth to four boys who have the same parents and live in the same house, I can see some things they are born with. I have one boy who talks incessantly and one you have to pull information out of. Why is that? Nature and nurture are the same for these boys. I believe it is the way the genes shook out this time-they were born that way. Does it make one boy better than the other? I don't believe so. Does it make one boy right and one boy wrong? I don't believe so.

Do I hold both boys to the same standards in our home? Yes I do. Do I expect to be answered every time I address them? Yes, whether you are the boy who likes to talk or the one who doesn't like to talk. If I speak to you, you respond. Regardless of the tendency you were born with, that is irrelevant, you are expected to live up to the standard. Just like I hold them both to the standard of not talking just to hear their own voice or talking over people. 

Now is one of those things easier to comply with for each boy? Yes, they are. 

Do the standards change based on what is easier for an individual boy? No, it does not.

Are standards universal? Yes, they are.

As you can see, I believe a person has the responsibility to control their own actions regardless of the tendencies they have, or "were born with" if you will.

Then comes the issue of standards. I get mine from the Bible. Where do you get yours? 

There are those who have a different belief system or some other framework for standards, and I do not deny them that right. In my belief system God gives us free will. Free will to make both right and wrong choices, free will to adhere to a different system of beliefs and set of standards. But it does not take away my right to my beliefs and standards because someone else thinks them wrong.