Are we losing appreciation for what was handed to us?

When I was a child, my father taught me some of his basic rules for living. These rules, he learned from his father and found such merit in them, that he passed them on to me. Some of you might have even heard them, from your parents, growing up as well. Simple rules really, but still, very profound. Rules like; Finish what you start. You are only as good as your word. If you can't afford to pay cash, than you can't afford it. ( I wish I would have paid better attention to that one ) He also taught me that nothing in life is free. If it comes too easy, you take it for granted, but, if you work hard and earn what you want for yourself, and in life, you will appreciate it more because of what you had to go through to get it.

The last one has gotten me to think about our situation in America these days. It's no secret that our parents had to work harder, to achieve what they did, than we had to. We live in such an age of convenience, compared to them, I'm not sure if I could have even walked in my fathers shoes, let alone my grandfathers. And my kids, forget about it, modern technology pretty much insures that, unless they are playing a sport, they probably will never break a sweat. Is this our problem today? Have things come to us too easily? Have we lost our appreciation for liberty and freedom because we, as a generation, personally didn't have to fight to obtain or keep them? How many times have we seen our children, who after begging for that certain something, that they just had to have, express sheer joy, when unwrapping that gift found under the Christmas tree, only to discard it after a few weeks of use? Or even I myself, Knowing fully the pain and suffering that my Lord, Jesus Christ, went through to offer himself ,as a sacrifice, so I could receive his gift of salvation, just to take for granted, at times, what he has done for me.

Thomas Paine once said, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value." The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776.

I fear that, if we don't hold on dearly to what was given to us, as a nation, freely from those who fought so hard so we could have them. We won't truly appreciate our freedoms and liberties, until we have to fight to obtain them ourselves.