Setting the Standard

I have always felt kind of sorry for pole vaulters. Just when they reach their goal, someone raises the bar! It just doesn't seem quite fair.

My son and I recently had a discussion about standards, specifically his versus his parents. It seems he is rather unsatisfied with the rules in our house, though he is polite enough to begrudginglly follow most of them. In the end, it boiled down to our responsibility as his parents, and he didn't have too much arguement against that.

I also had a conversation about standards and expectations not so long ago with one of the ladies I work with. We were talking about the levels of service offered here in South Africa. It seems that the "standard" is rather low, and it was offered that perhaps I should rather change my expectations to match that of the available standard. I am sure that my frustrated grunts and groans that often eminate from my office can be tiresome, but I have to whole heartedly disagree with the perspective she offered.

What would happen if we didn't have a standard to match? What if there wasn't any "bar" at all to reach for? What point would there be to existence? We would simply reduce ourselves to a blob-like state, simply gratifying ourselves with whatever we could.

I think it is a great challenge to all right minded people who have any sort of ethics at all to raise the current standard - not by forcing rules and regulations upon others, but by practicing a higher standard of living. In the business world: Not taking bribes for orders, Doing what you say you will do, Offering information that is right and true. In private life: Similarly, being genuine people of honesty and integrity, avoiding back biting and gossip (there's a challenge!), raising our families in such a manner that they value things in life such as good citizenship, faith and integrity.

It's not that we don't fall short of those standards, but rather that we keep trying to attain - as Paul said in Philippians: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”