Times Have Changed

   It's quite obvious the world today is much different from the one in which I grew up. I have things today I never dreamed of when I was a girl or even when I was married. Microwave, computer, cell phone, and digital photos, did not exist or were out of the reach of the ordinary household fifty years ago. There have been advances in medicine enabling people to live longer or be cured of physical problems or diseases that once were incurable. Vehicles are built to run more than the 100,000 miles that was all my dad expected from a car.

  Those are the obvious changes in the world but there are many others that are not as noticeable in the way things are done. I was reminded of that a couple weeks ago at a reunion of Leroy's cousins. One of his aunts (now deceased) belonged to the Stauffer (Pike) Mennonite church. All of her children were there and all of them are still Pike. When it was time to eat, one of the women said, "Let the men go first." And they did. Then the women followed after all the men were served. There were no children because all of the cousins are grandparents.

  That little incident took me back sixty or more years to the way things used to be done. When people had company, the men ate first. Then the table was reset for the women and children. I well remember how long we had to wait to eat when my widowed aunt married her second husband. The tables were set several times and the children were the last to eat. We went out in the barn and crawled through hay tunnels in our new dresses while we waited to eat. (Our mothers were not happy when they saw us.) We were so hungry we pulled turnips from the garden, washed them off and ate them. Finally, it was our turn to go in the house to eat. 

   Somewhere along the way the customs changed. Now husbands and wives are seated at the table together with their children. And today, if there is a picnic you can count on the boys being the first in line to fill their plates. I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, but when the men ate first at the reunion I realized how much things have changed. I had not seen that done for a long time, but apparently it is still the accepted practice among the Old Order Mennonites. I believe serving the men first is showing respect for them as leaders and providers in the home.

   Why have we dropped that practice? Have we been influenced by the world's system? Have we lost respect for our men? 1 Peter 3:6 says Sarah called Abraham "lord." There are other ways to show respect for our husbands but we need to be careful we aren't influenced by the current culture that says women can be and do anything men do.

   On the other side of the coin, today we don't usually invite big crowds of thirty or more people for a Sunday dinner like they did years ago. We limit the number of our guests to one table full unless it's a picnic. It's too much work to keep food warm, wash dishes and reset a second table, especially if it's a Sunday. In that respect, the change is a good one. Sundays were made for rest, not slaving over serving a big crowd.