The Chinese Merganser is a rare and endangered duck species and one of the best parents in the animal kingdom. They do something marvelous with their young. The mother leaves the nest a few hours after the eggs hatch. The less-than-a-day-old ducklings must climb to the entrance of the tree nest, which consists of many attempts. After they reach the opening, they are forced to jump 50 feet to the forest floor. We lack a merganser mentality in our society and our families.
Those that are entering the workforce now have a strange malady. They are the generation that needs micromanagers. Gone are the days when you give a person loose guidelines and a goal, and you are returned with double your investment. We live in an age where you get what you pay for, and if you are unspecific about what you are paying for, you will get nothing.
Proverbs 6:6-11
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
The survival instinct has left our youth. More accurately, it was never instilled. They do not feel the hunger pains of their poor decision. Many young people entering our workforce are unwise and cannot see past their noses. Do not misunderstand, I do not believe them to be unintelligent. Many of them are brilliant. However, there is a severe but subtle difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is the application of that intelligence. We have failed to teach them to jump.
This is a hard topic to address because many of the offenders raising these ducklings are, by society’s standards, loving, well-intentioned, and involved parents. The cure is also the problem. It seems that “socially good” parenting produces intelligent and unwise offspring, and “socially bad” parenting produces unintelligent and wise offspring. Survival’s foundation is wisdom, and intelligence prolongs survival. A deficiency in either category leads to difficulty.
As those who manage or encourage this new workforce, we have a mighty task. There comes a time in an adult’s life when they must meet a young person and be challenged by their inability to survive or their incompetence. How do we meet this challenge head-on? We must force them to survive and give them the knowledge to last a long time. If they are wise, teach them. If they are intelligent, we must kick them from the 50-foot nest where they have been comfortably resting.
Nos & Rehtaf, Dnabsuh 