Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. But he may as well have. The man who mass produced reliable transportation built something more than a car. Henry Ford built loyalty. He built a loyalty, I might add, that was deeper than reason and thicker than water.
If you drive a Chevy, especially if you drive a Chevy truck, I know that I’ve got your attention. I understand your sense of loyalty. My three children are that way about Fords. I honestly don’t know how they came to be such Ford loyalists, but maybe you do. And I suppose I could guess!
Often, as we cruise down the interstate in our big, beautiful, red Ford F-350 dual wheel Power Stroke, I can hear my kids in the back seat “shooting” the tires off of the poor Chevys we pass. I can’t condone what they’re doing. But I just can’t bring myself to condemn it either!
And when the boys get a Match Box car for Christmas, the first question they ask their dear old Dad is, “Is it a Ford?” If the answer is not to their liking, their disappointment isn’t anything that a magic marker or an imagination can’t fix. All the little cars in their world are Fords!
I once offended my kids by complimenting the looks of a Chevy truck at a Wal-Mart parking lot in a moment of objective weakness. “But Daddy, it’s a Chevy!” they exclaimed trying to understand an “objective” compliment with their Ford minds. I am raising three little loyalists… just like your dad did!
“Oh, please!” I can hear you reply. “I couldn’t care less about such things. I drive an Isuzu, but I’m not a fanatic about it! My kids can drive whatever they choose.” To which I reply, “O.K., then. Let’s talk about the speed of Apple computers, or the taste of McDonald’s hamburgers, or the legacy of the Dallas Cowboys, or the merits of the Democrat Party, or the health benefits of organic food.”
So, what am I getting at? I’m getting at loyalty! We all have it for something or someone. And loyalty is not necessarily wrong. In fact, there is something very wrong with someone who possesses no loyalty at all. But loyalty is far too powerful to base solely on whom we like or how we feel.
Isn’t it obvious that we pass on both beliefs and biases to our kids? That makes what we believe mighty important! If I believe nothing, my children will believe anything. And if I do not test my loyalties by the truth, then my kids will saddle my “hobby horse” and ride! Isn’t it amazing how difficult it is to choose our loyalty based on the truth? Often we feel loyalty more than we are persuaded to it.
That is why it is important to me to teach my kids the truth, help them identify error, and give them something firm to stand on. While some criteria by which I judge Apple computers or the Dallas Cowboys may be “in the eye of the beholder,” God’s truth is absolute! I want my kids to both believe in and feel a loyalty to Bible truth!
In contrast, I wouldn’t be completely heartbroken if the facts led my kids to drive something else in the coming years, even if it was a Chevy. After all, neither Ford nor Chevy is immutable. But for now, if a big, beautiful Ford passes you on the interstate and you see three kids in the back seat pointing their fingers at your tires and “shooting,” you’ll know that we are passing you! And I will know that you are driving a Chevy.
*As published in the April/May 2009 issue of the Branding Iron