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Let's face the facts, competition can be both good and bad. It all depends on the character of an individual and how they value one another. Young people are taught at an early age to be competitive among their peers. The concept of being the best that you can be is a good idea, but at what cost are we willing to go to higher our self-esteem? Often, competition is used as a weapon of defense to embed in someone else's thoughts that I'm better than you. It is up to us as people to empower humans' abilities, just as we empower ourselves. Our society has become so cut throat to where it's impossible to have a casual conversation, without negative competition being the drive of the topic. If we, as adults, don't change our views on competition we will lead a generation into having war like mentalities.

It all starts in the home, if our children hear us engage in negative competition with family and friends, then they will apply those same actions into their lives. Competition should be a building block to help others strive for the highest level that they can achieve. Let's use Cain and Abel for examples: They both were asked to bring gifts to honor God, as a sacrifice. Cain was very selfish in his giving, he brought some of his fruits of the soil to God, however Able thought about his gift to God and he gave the best of his flock. God rejected Cain's gift simply, because he did not put his best foot forward in becoming the best that he could be. God's intent was not to put competition between the brothers, but to raise Cain's conscious awareness of his action and how he should work toward being a better person. Therefore, we cannot allow our ambition to control how we treat other people. Being competitive can enhance our determination(to be at the top of the game), but stepping on others feelings, can cause serious damage.

Competition, can hurt young people if their not taught to use it in the right way. Rather then to promote competition as destroying our opponents, we should encourage the youth to embrace each others talents and to support positive action in whatever activities their involved in. Negative rivalry is not good to install in our young adults, because it will spark hurtful competition in their home, school and eventually their work environment.

Learn more about this author, Ethel Smith.
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