Actions - Consequences

All morning the local talk show on the radio has been ranting and raving about a homemade "bomb" set off in the parking lot of a supermarket nearby. The young man responsible is 17 and got the instructions for this thing off of Youtube. Begin the arguing concerning the "prank" of a youth or the deliberate intent to set off a weapon of some destruction. In my mind I hear all of the previous nonsense instigated by the "youth" in the area and how it has been handled. From afar it seems that actions have no consequences other than parents shelling out a bundle for legal representation to first of all defend and then to sue to recover some of the costs of the defense.

I go back to my "youth" which I am sad to say lingered well into my adult years and realize that, for most of the nonsense we went through due to bad decisions and foolish behaviour, I thought all it would take was money to make it better. The consequences of our actions depleted our wallets and money is the most easily replaced resource. The consequences of our actions were easily dismissed. Tra la la la la until my late husband made a decision that could not be reversed or paid off or changed in any way shape or form. That was the first time I realized that this is not a TV soap opera where we get written out of the script only to return down the road with a story about the coma being reversed or amnesia causing years of wandering away only to be .. .. .. well you get it. There are certain actions that cause such consequences that lives are destroyed and people gone and I don't think there's any way to teach that except to live through it.

Would we have averted some tragedy if, as children, we suffered true consequences for our actions? I'll never know but I know I have a totally different outlook since that tragedy of my past. I sit and wonder what would happen if I do this instead of that? Who will be affected and how will it change me or them? Sometimes I'm paralyzed by my thoughts. Then I realize that God holds me in the palm of His hand and if I love Him it will be OK and . . . . I still wish that people could understand that we can't undo some things..and our actions or words have long reaching and serious impacts. Think and pray and then act.

Wow. I am really pondering today. Sorry.