Misusing Authority

 

Authority is an actual situation under which we will always find ourselves. We can be the one with authority, or we can be one who is under someone else’s authority. Having a role of authority can easily be misused or abused, if you have others under your authority, you need to understand the responsibility of your role and the position those under you find themselves.

When someone becomes married and begins having children, those children are completely dependent upon their parents, they have needs both physical, emotional, and mental, if the parent is not selfish, is not thoughtless, and understand that everything they say and do will be observed by the child. The parent needs to understand that the child will see hypocrisy and will be confused if the words of the parent and the actions of the parent contradict one another. Children need to be loved, need to be protected, and need to be led toward a life of self-sacrifice and a focus of concern for others.

If you are an employee with a boss who is only focused on seeing success for themselves, hopefully you will recognize that you are in an unfortunate situation. If the boss always takes credit for the success of the people who are under his direction, then he is not a good person, he his not concerned about overall success for everyone, and is foundationally a selfish and greedy person.

When someone is in a position of authority, for example, the police, hopefully this person will not take advantage of his position of power and will be focused on doing what is right, what is legal, and what is in agreement with the current legal system. It is possible that one can find himself in a situation where those in authority are manipulating the facts of whatever situation. This is why it is important to have several witnesses to any situation, so that the facts of the case can be correctly identified and articulated.

When someone is young, when someone is weak, when someone is fully dependent upon someone else, the person with this responsibility needs to be loving, thoughtful, and concerned about the wellbeing of others and not simply focused on his own interests, his own pleasure, or his personal success. Love those around you, protect those around you, and always do what is right and good for those under your authority.

Taking advantage of someone who is weak, who is unable to care for themselves, and is doing all they can to simply survive and thrive. Our goal in interacting with others should be focused on helping others to pursue love, to pursue holiness, and to become good, holy people. If someone is fully dependent upon us, then we need to not be solely concerned with our own satisfaction but we should be doing all we can to help them.