Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. There's a lot of great reasons to live in Colorado, but one of the things that I think is really great is living near the United States Air Force Academy. Every year around this time, the amazing Thunderbirds come to town, and they usually come here in conjunction with the commencement ceremonies at the Academy. Now, of course, last year that didn't happen because of COVID, but they are here this week for the graduation. And the really cool thing is that prior to the commencement, they practice, that is, the Thunderbirds. And because I live so close to the Air Force Academy, we get a free air show every year around this time. And I can tell you, it's almost like looking at the mountains, it never gets old. Nor does watching the Thunderbirds do their aerial maneuvers flying at such high speeds. It's just incredible to watch the thundering through the sky. It just gives you a feeling of such pride to know that you're part of a country that has a unit of pilots who are so synchronized and so sharp in the things that they do. It's just amazing to me, and I love watching it every year. It never gets old. In fact, I remember when we first moved here and I heard it. I went to the window and I was like, wow, this is really cool. Other times I'd be driving in the car, and it would be they'd be practicing, and there'd be people driving, and just they'd just pull over to the side of the road. It was almost like they almost didn't care where they pulled over. They just had to pull over, get out of the car, get their phones out, get their cameras, and take pictures because it was such an incredible sight. And if you've ever been to the area, you know that it's gorgeous to see the mountains and to see the Air Force Academy, the backdrop of the mountain, and then you have these jets that are flying at just outrageous speeds. And yeah, it moves you. If it doesn't, then I think there's probably something wrong with you. But uh it's just a really cool thing to uh to behold. Well, I could probably talk about this for a long time, but I won't. So here we go. I'm calling this episode the value of virtue. And in reality, I could probably do dozens of shows using that phrase, the value of, and then plug in any principle, phrase, or word, and discuss it, such as the value of liberty, the value of freedom, the value of faith. So who knows? I may do a whole series of episodes on this principle, the value of. And speaking of the value of faith, my faith is very important to me. It's something that I do cherish and I do value. I try not to push it on other people. I try to live by example as opposed to trying to preach or to be preachy. To me, actions speak louder than words, and I think with respect to religion, that's the way a lot of people look at it. I mean, that's the way I look at it. So I will be talking about some things that have to do with religion today in the Bible. And I hope that each of you will be able to get something from this episode and from the things that I'm going to talk about today. So, what are values? I think plainly stated, they're morals that we use to guide the things that we do. We have a set of values that we teach our children. We try to teach them right from wrong. They're things that we hold dear to our hearts, and they're things that we actually aspire to live by or to live up to. It may be a better way to state it. In any event, having values or a value system doesn't require perfection, and neither does it require that one is the most pious on the block. I think what it requires is a willingness to be humble and to recognize that each of us can grow every day, and we should. And none of us are perfect, so throw that off the table. That's I always love it when people say when they talk about perfection, they talk about it as if it's something that we can attain in this life. Well, it's not. We can't. And really, that's okay. We're not perfect, so why should we hold ourselves to such a high standard? So, where do we learn our value system? Typically, we all learned it growing up in our homes, at least hopefully. We try to teach our children right from wrong, how to treat other people, to respect those who may look, act, or think different than we do, and generally just how to be a good person. Unfortunately, our society is replete with examples of people who either were not taught any value system at home, or they were taught it and they have turned their back on it. So if values are not taught at home, then where? I suppose a religious setting could be a place, a school. What about society? That's a scary proposition. I don't know if society today can teach people how to have good values and good morals. So if parents don't teach some sort of value system to their children, can we really rely on these other alternative sources? More than likely not. Certainly the idea of freedom and liberty does not give one carte blanche to live however they want to live with no consequences. I've talked about this before. Freedom is great, liberty is great, but if there are people who abuse their liberty and freedom to the detriment of other people, we cannot accept that in a civilized society. Period. It's interesting to me that as a society, we don't really talk much about virtue or being virtuous, at least not outside of a religious setting. But in my mind, it's something that we should talk about. And we should be able to talk about it without being shamed, without being ridiculed or judged, or as if we are somehow better than other people. That's just not the case. Well then, what does it mean to be virtuous? There are some synonyms that I came up with, and you may come up with some of your own, but what I thought of was goodness, chaste, holy, modest, pure, uh essentially that which is considered sacred. For instance, I believe the human body to be a sacred creation, and that we should treat it in such a way that brings glory to the Creator that we try our hardest to not do anything that would defile such a wonderful and sacred creation. It often seems in our society that adhering to virtue or being virtuous is mocked. It's considered to be old fashioned, it's it's out of date. You're a fanatic if you believe that being virtuous is important, that it's somehow just not hip, it's not the end thing, it's not cool. It's more cool to be promiscuous, for instance, as opposed to being virtuous. There's an account in Scripture of a woman who was healed by a man named Jesus. I believe in scripture. I don't just believe that they're simply a collection of nice stories. Is that to say that I take every word or phrase literally? No, it doesn't. What it simply means is that I take on faith those things that I don't completely understand or can comprehend, but it doesn't mean that I think that every single word is a literal or has a literal meaning to it. However, there is an account that I think is quite profound, which I think in many instances in scripture, there are a lot of accounts that are very profound and are hard to explain to the logical or rational mind. And one of these accounts is of a woman who the scriptures say had an issue of blood. So we can only surmise that she had some sort of hemorrhaging problem and she had it for many years. I think the scriptures say 12 years. The account tells us that she had spent all of her money and visited a doctor or maybe even doctors, who knows, and had not yet found a cure. Perhaps she even felt as though she might die simply because she had had this issue for so long and had not had it taken care of. And I can't imagine the uh resources that were available to people back then, or the lack of resources and the understanding of medicine to help her to be healed and cured. Certainly her story is one of faith because she had tried every known cure that she could think of and that money at the time could buy. And so she must have reasoned in her mind that I can try to get close to this man, and maybe if I just touch his clothes, I'll be taken care of and healed. Well, she did that. He was in a place where there were a lot of people, and a lot of people were probably touching him and were near him, and when she did touch him, he made the comment that or actually asked the question, Who touched me? And the the people around him, his apostles said, What do you mean, who touched you? There are a lot of people around you and a lot of people who are touching you, but he corrected them by saying that he felt the virtue go out of him. Again, she simply said in her mind that and had enough faith that if she could just touch his clothes, forget about trying to touch his actual body, but if she could just touch his clothes, she could be healed. She did, and she was. Now I relate this account because of the fact that Jesus said that he felt virtue or power or strength come out of him. By no means, please don't think that you're now exempt from attending Sunday school this week just because I've related this account from scripture. So you're not off the hook. In all seriousness, in my own mind, I look at being virtuous as exhibiting a power or a strength, and therefore that's a plus, that's a positive in someone's life. Let's now sort of compare or contrast the value of virtue and how that stacks up with present-day virtue signaling. We've all heard the term, and I think most of us know what it is, which is someone who is bringing attention to a cause, but they don't really want to do anything to change things, to change the status quo. People who virtue signal often really don't care about the issue. They simply want others to think they do. And that's a big difference between one who actually embraces the value of virtue and has respect for it and wants to continue to live their life in such a way. Perhaps one of the biggest examples of virtue signaling is over COVID-19 and the wearing of masks. If you wear a mask, it signals that you care for other people and that you have some innate desire to protect them. If you don't wear a mask, then well, you're the biggest heathen that has ever been produced, and you have no consideration for other people. And honestly, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if we're ever going to see a time where there won't be some kind of mandate to wear a mask. In any event, virtue signaling has become the new socially acceptable mechanism to discredit other people regarding nearly every aspect of life that if you don't bow to the status quo of so-called mainstream belief, then you are somehow a reprobate. In all reality, it's given virtue a bad name. There is value in virtue, and it must not be allowed to be mocked. But unfortunately, it is often mocked because some people can only feel good about themselves if they are making fun of people who are choosing to live a more fulfilled life by embracing the aspects of virtue. It seems as though virtuous people as well as Christians are very easy targets for, I don't know, shallow people, maybe? I mean no disrespect, but I think we live in a country where religious freedom is supposed to be a hallmark of our society. That's all I'm saying. Time for me to go, ladies and gentlemen, but before I do, of course, I want to leave you with my positive quote, which comes from Margaret Thatcher. She said this quote, no government at any level or at any price can afford on the crime side the police necessary to assure our safety unless the overwhelming majority of us are guided by an inner personal code of morality. And you will not get that inner personal code of morality unless children are brought up in a family, a family that gives them the affection they seek, that makes them feel they belong, that guides them to the future, and that will build continuity in future generations. The greatest inequality today is not inequality of wealth or income. It is the inequality between the child brought up in a loving, supportive family and one who has been denied that birthright. It is significant to the survival of our society, truly.