What Is The Deciding Factor?

I had some thoughts running through my head today and will try to put them into intelligent form on here. What got me started, was a kid at work. He is around 21-23, and is in charge of setting up our machines. He is somewhat in charge, but doesn't have much authority. He is one of those tattooed & pierced guys. Lately, he has added something else to the mix: mascara. The first day we wore it, I thought surely I was wrong, but indeed, it is mascara, being worn by a heterosexual male in his early 20's.

I don't understand why women wear make-up, much less men! - If some women's husbands and kids met them as God made them - natural hair color, no make-up, they probably wouldn't recognize them! Anyway, this wearing of mascara by a guy got me to pondering: what constitutes something becoming normal that wasn't before? You gotta admit, this ain't normal! Yet, turn back the page several years. Back when men started wearing earrings. Did that seem normal then? Did not men who wore them appear to be sissies or gay? What has changed? If they appeared to be gay or sissies back then, why not now?

Just because a lot of people do something, does it make it normal, or right? If I started playing with baby dolls, wouldn't people think I had a problem? What if 1 in 4 men suddenly started playing with baby dolls? Normal then? No, but it seems if enough people start doing something long enough, it gets accepted as normal, and no one is shocked anymore.

It used to be a woman who got pregnant out of wedlock was looked down on and considered immoral - and it was, though men were left off the hook for some reason. Now, you are considered a freak if you don't engage in premarital sex and live with your boyfriend or girlfriend.

It used to be hidden when people of the same sex wanted to have sexual relations. It was wrong, sinful, and immoral. Now, it is paraded across the TV screen. Rare is the show that does not have a gay or lesbian character. They have marches down the streets of our biggest cities. Anyone who doesn't embrace them and their lifestyle is intolerant and hateful.

Someone said the following, and I don't know who: "All it takes for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing". Or something like that. There are degrees of these things. I think any man who wears an earring is a sissy. I don't care if he is 6'8", has more muscles than 10 people should have, plays all the sports, and hunting, etc. He is a sissy. Had people stood up to the men's earring craze and called it that from the beginning, I don't think it would be the craze it is now, but in the grand scheme of things, the men and earring aren't all that important.

If Christians had stood up in bigger matters. Abortion, sex, homosexuality. Stood loud and firm in the fact that they were wrong, sinful, immoral - I don't think those things would be so prevalent today, and at least abortion, wouldn't even be legal. It takes more than a lot of people doing something for it to be considered normal by the general public. It takes people just sitting idly by and letting it happen.

Our compass needs to be God and His Word. Everything should be measured by His standards, not by what the majority feels about the subject. Had we done this all along, the world would be a better place. Without men wearing make-up. :-)