We live in the twenty-first century—nearly 29 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall—and nations are moving away from democratic governments and reverting to hardline leaders with dictatorial and tyrannical tendencies (Washington Post, March 20, 2018).

“…With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love...”
                                                                                                                                      —Ephesians 4:2

We’ve all seen it on TV, or maybe even experienced it in real life. For me, it was an episode of a popular TV show when I was a child. It was shocking to my young and easily influenced mind, and looked like a good idea at the time.

My son and I study a Korean form of martial arts called Tang Soo Do. In most martial arts, the highest achievement is the black belt. The student begins with a white belt, and over the course of years, students move up through the color levels until they reach black belt status. A couple of months ago, we had the privilege of attending a black belt ceremony where we observed some of our classmates receive their reward for years of practice and hard work. At the ceremony, an interesting experience presented itself.

Women the world over are choosing career over family, encouraged by the ideas that women should live for themselves and avoid the bondage of marriage and family—or at least delay it! This trend is contributing to decreasing fertility rates around the globe—often to below replacement levels.

For the first time in more than 50 years, Sweden will send war-preparation packets to their entire population of 4.8 million households (The Guardian, May 21, 2018).