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Here are some wise words from author and professor Peter Kreeft, author of聽Before I Go: Letters to Our Children about What Really Matters.

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One of the stupidest songs I ever heard on TV was the theme song of a kids鈥� show of the seventies, 鈥淭he Electric Company.鈥� It said: 鈥淭he most important person in the whole wide world is 鈥� you!鈥� Implied message: be a self-centered little spoiled brat. You鈥檙e number one, everyone else is number two.

Here is an alternative philosophy:

1. The most important person is God. This is necessarily true as 2 + 2 = 4. It is true whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not. So you鈥檇 better learn to know it and like it and believe it.
2. The second most important person in the world is the person you marry. Nobody else comes even close. That鈥檚 what marriage is. If you don鈥檛 know that, you鈥檙e not really married.
3. Next come your kids.
4. Then comes yourself. Take care of yourself before taking care of anyone else except your kids, your spouse, and your God. Because if you don鈥檛 inflate your own oxygen mask first, you won鈥檛 be able to help others inflate theirs.
5. Then comes your friends. Never betray a friend.
6. Then comes everyone else you know, your 鈥渘eighbors.鈥�
7. Then comes the rest of the world.
8. Then comes things, any and all things: money, the things money can buy 鈥� houses, cars, vacations. Stuff. (Remember George Carlin鈥檚 routine about 鈥渟tuff.鈥�) Always, people before things. Use things and love people, not vice versa.
9. Finally, abstractions: ideas, causes, organizations, political parties, etc. they are means to the rest as ends. By the way, the Church is not an 鈥渙rganization,鈥� it鈥檚 a family. I never saw 鈥渙rganized religion,鈥� only disorganized religion, like Noah鈥檚 ark.