A Motto to Live By
A statue of Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, who served as prime minister and attorney general of Québec from 1936–1939 and from 1944–1959, stands on the grounds of the Boucher de Niperville home in Trois-Rivières. Duplessis worked to increase the status and power of French-speaking Québec, which exists often uneasily in English-speaking Canada in the British Commonwealth of Nations. It was under Duplessis’ administration that Québec adopted its beautiful blue and white flag, adorned with the French fleur-de-lis.
Ray pointed out to me the motto at the base of the statue, telling me that . . .
. . . it means: “Cooperation always; assimilation never.” I mulled over the application of this motto for Christians. We could translate it for ourselves something like this:
- Loving and living at peace with those who oppose our Father? Always.
- Assimilating with the world? Never.
Consider these words from Jesus’ prayer on the night before He died on the Cross. One of the most important reasons we teach our children at home is because of the truth of His prayer.
But now I come to You;
and these things I speak in the world
so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them,
because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world.
I do not ask You to take them out of the world,
but to keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.
John 17:13-18