History teaches valuable lessons. All of us wager our lives on the things we believe. Each person spends their lives like their paychecks on their beliefs and desires Some values are greater than others. I began to compare some values and behaviors of Germany and Japan based on Hitler and Hideki to the values and behaviors of England and America, based on Churchill and Roosevelt.

Germany and Japan were two countries who believed in their superiority over all others, which excused them from compassion for those they considered inferior. They had a creed of hatred, which breeds bondage and injustice. Hitler denied supplies to his own military by spending so much money and resources on destroying the Jews and others he blamed and hated in his bigotry. The soldiers who were aligned closest to Hitler and Hideki’s philosophies of hatred performed the most atrocities and the worst cruelties on and off the battlefield. They created a legacy of unbridled brutality. Russians who worked with the allies had a similar outlook of cruelty. They did to others as had been done to them, with enthusiasm.

England and America were the leading forces among the allies. Their outlook and priorities were for freedom and justice, even though some of their individual troops did acts of brutality. The allied troops who committed atrocities did so because they bought into the hatred of war instead of standing in the values of their nations. The allies had to stop the horrors of cruelties committed by the axis powers over all they conquered and would conquer or the whole world would be consumed. Freedom and justice were worthy values.

WWII is a big and loud picture that shows us what we fight every day in our individual lives. Will we buy into the cruelty, selfishness, and brutality of life, or will we serve higher values that stand in the face of our own suffering caused by doing the right thing for the right reason. Will we be like the wrong we experience, or will we be different. Every day in every way, we have to make that choice in large or small ways. Usually all the small choices set the pattern for how we act with the big choices. We have to choose what is worth sacrificing our lives to do and to be. The world around us will tell us what we feel and who we are, or we can choose our values and tell the world who we are. Jesus fought this battle on the physical and spiritual stages of life to show us what true values are and what they are worth. The choices we make prove the ways we have chosen to wager and spend our lives. It is important to review individual choices and consider the legacy we create.