Generation Me

I'm reading Generation Me. Here is one of many quotes that have caused me to think, wonder, and wonder about how this Generation can be reached with a gospel that calls for sacrifice, commitment to God, and belief that this is God's story and not ours, "Culture Shock! USA, a guidebook to American culture for foreigners explains, 'Often one sees an American engaged in a dialogue with a tiny child. "Do you want to go home now?" says the parent. "No," says an obviously tired, crying child. And so parent and child continue to sit discontentedly in a chilly park. "What's the matter with these people?" says the foreigner to himself, who can see the chid is too young to make such decisions." It's just part of the American culture, the book says: "The child is acquiring both a sense of responsibility for himself and a sense of his own importance." We expect our kids to have individual preferences and would never dream, as earlier generations did, of making every single decision for our children and asking them to be seen and not heard. Not coincidentally, this also teaches our children that their wants are the most important.