One of many things that I am grateful to my father for is the gift of staying.  By nature I am a lazy, flighty, fickle person.  However, I remember several pivotal moments in my life when Daddy taught me about what I call staying, or the ability to stand and not be moved.  Some of those moments were so little and seemingly insignificant that I doubt he even remembers them, but I do.  Throughout a lifetime he taught me that style and fashion are two different things.  (Style is what you're into, fashion is what everybody else says you ought to be into.)  Fashions come and go.  But, as I have said before, we must be timeless.  Now, you can wear or listen to whatever you want to.  Although, I would caution you against going so far as to single-handedly try to resurrect the music of Milly Vannilly through the vehicle of a cover band.  (However, if anybody's interested you can reach me, well...here.)  What I'm talking about is whether or not we allow ourselves to be pushed around by philosophical fashions and trends. Is your morality whatever it needs to be to suit the situation?  Do you know the Lord and His Word well enough to stand when a new wave of trendy religion sweeps over and washes people away?  Do your roots go deep enough that your children can look at you and learn how to stay by your example?  The first chapter of the book of James talks about a man who doubts as being "like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind."  Verse 8 says that "he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."  This kind of man may have good intentions, but he will be a danger to his family and will lead others astray causing confusion wherever he goes.  Gentlemen, in the days that we live in we cannot afford to be unstable.

In Mark 15:11 the Bible says that the people called for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus because the jealous chief priests got them "stirred up" against Jesus.  This is the kind of thing that happens when we are unstable.  Gentlemen, families all around us are hurting and failing because men have neglected their commission to be the fence posts that God made us to be.  What happens when a fence post fails?  We are witnessing it.  But, in days like these Noah was saved and his family with him.  Noah knew the Lord and he knew how to stay.