Don’t over- or understate the value of things

Appraisal of the value of something will vary from one individual to the next depending on the extent of their understanding of reality. However, all of us have the instant capacity to reconcile to the value we see in things based on our present understanding. Few do.

Instead, most people “call evil good, and good evil,”¹ putting “darkness for light, and light for darkness...bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” by desiring “that which is of no worth”² and “which cannot satisfy.” These value inversions are not limited to religious contexts.

They also numerously occur in normal life situations in situations great and small. You invert value when:

• You pretend that easy things are hard, and that hard things are easy.
• You pretend that you help your adult children by removing them from the demands of life.
• You pretend that valuable things are easy, and that difficult things aren’t valuable.
• You pretend that fat people are healthy, and that ugly people are beautiful.
• You pretend that single mothers provide an equally valuable environment to children as married mothers, and that single mothers raise children better than single fathers.
• You pretend that mothers who work outside the home are at least as beneficial as mothers who dedicate their time to their families in their homes.
• You pretend that a man who supports his family sufficiently for his wife to remain at home is of equal value to a man who does not.
• You pretend that a homosexual couple is capable of the same experiences as a heterosexual couple.
• You pretend that a woman who has had many sexual partners is the same as a woman who does not have sex until marriage.
• You pretend that a dating pair who share a dog is the same as a married couple raising kids.

A related dishonest practice is that of refusing to honor the good and call out the evil. Again, this is not limited to religious contexts, and occurs on a regular basis any time you refrain from commending what is worthy of commendation or criticizing what could be better. To be honest is to reflect reality as it stands, and inflating the value of anything beyond its actual value is as much “calling evil good” as denigrating the value of something beyond its value is “calling good evil.”