Why Should I?

You are here

Why Should I?

Login or Create an Account

With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later!

Sign In | Sign Up

×

It seems to be a habit today to respond to situations with the attitude of "because I want to." With hours of people-watching under my proverbial belt, I have heard this excuse from 21-year-olds: "I will drink because I can." From 18-year-olds: "I will smoke because I can." From 16-year-olds: "I will drive wherever I want because I can." And so it goes all the way down the age scale to some whiny 2-year-olds saying, "Because I want to."

But how do socially conscious people like us combat this ever- present selfish idea of "I'm going to do whatever I want and you can't do a thing about it"? Most importantly, how do we respond to this environment in a manner pleasing to God?

I am currently a student attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. With more than two years of college knowledge inside my head, I have seen and heard some things that make me sadly shake my head. For example, I was downright shocked by the number of people who treat the weekend, Friday night to Sunday night, as a 48-hour party.

In the words of my father, "I have never appreciated the Sabbath as much as I did in college." Let me tell you right here that even though you might dismiss this as some blatant propaganda on my part, when this someday rings true for each of you, I offer my "I told you so."

I personally found the Sabbath tedious to keep while younger, mainly because my friends would go out and I couldn't. And our church area had a serious lack of teens with whom to celebrate God's day. But once I got to college that all changed. Between the workload, the extra responsibility and the new social situations, I found myself torn 1,400 different directions. And the mere thought of an entire day of not working, not doing homework and the chance to build up my sleep bank is enough for rejoicing.

Another issue is taking off school for the Holy Days. In my youth, I grew excited at the thought of being able to get out of school for a week for the Fe