Joan Rivers coined the phrase, "Can we talk?"
Well, I want to know, "Can we talk?"
In 1979, I was an eighth grader at a little school
called Zion Chapel. Zion was a small country
school with about 500 students enrolled in grades K-12. Virtually
everyone knew everyone. There
were problems in our school, but nothing dramatic. It was really
boring by today's standards.
We had our arguments and fights even, but when they
were over, they were over. We got up,
dusted our clothes off, and shook hands. Most times, we were
better friends afterward with new
respect for winner and loser. I guess you could say, we both
were winners.
Most of these fights were started by the schoolyard-bully
and his victim had put up with all he was going to. What started
out as a simple extortion of milk money became a battle for good and bad.
Many heads hung low after being humiliated by someone that just wasn't
supposed to be able to
beat the aggressor. I'll always remember how my life in school
changed when I did just that. I
whipped a bully that other kids were afraid of, but I never wanted
to kill him. That was a thought
that just didn't enter my mind. When it was over, he realized
he was wrong because he apologized
for his actions (before I would let him up). When I let him up,
we shook hands and it was over. We became friends for life.
His life is over now. Killed in a car accident
a few years ago, my friend I made on that day was
taken out of this world. Being the surviving person of a pair
of kids who's paths crossed as ours did
makes me feel glad that we had been men about our situation.
We had not let the differences that
once brought us to blows, ruin our friendship and make us eternal enemies.
Now days, the scenario has changed. If you
are the winner in an altercation, you have to worry
about being shot from behind or beaten up by several of the loser's
friends. The label "winners and
losers" has been renamed to "survivors and the dead".
The recent slaughtering of innocent people at different
schools across the nation should have
society concerned. Teachers and students have become targets.
Where revenge has become the
sole focus of a break-up between a girlfriend and boyfriend or occult
affiliated kids conducting
ceremonial acts means something is missing from their lives.
It most likely is guidance from parents.
The spiritual leadership is nonexistent and the teaching of morals
and values undoubtedly have
dwindled. I find it ironic that when incidents like the one in
Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Louisiana
become more numerous one has to wonder if our past is coming back to
haunt us. What do I
mean? Well, think back to the time before divorce grew past 50%
of all married couples. Think back to when fathers had say so over
their children. Think back to when prayer in school was legal.
See any relationship?
Judges have a large impact on our society.
They put criminals behind bars and sometimes they set them free.
They set innocent people free and sometimes they put them behind bars.
Guidance from
other court cases and laws past by our legislatures help determine
just where they head with a case.
Fathers behind on child support are criminals. It's criminal
to be a father. A vindictive ex-wife,
playing her cards right, can get an ex-husband she harbors plenty of
hate for thrown into prison. Don't miss understand, fathers have
responsibility to their kids. They also have to live too. The
courts say, "Pay your child support and that makes you a good father.
See your kids every-other weekend and that makes you a good dad."
But when these same kids go before the judge because of their mischief,
they tend to forget they were the ones that opened the door for the child
to stray.
It was given to the father, years ago, to be the
leader of the family, spiritually, physically, and even mentally.
How a father corrects his children determine the future for that child.
Some mothers don't
have the ability to correct their children. Not that they don't
want to, but just can't. I remember not
fearing a spanking from my mother because it didn't hurt. She
could whip me all day, but I could
take it and even laugh when it was over. Now daddy, on the other
hand, was a different story.
When he spanked, I knew it and it made me remember.
Each and every thing on television our kids watch
say something to them. It has an impact as to
how they act in their daily lives. If a cartoon character has
an attitude, the child laughs and tries to
mimic that character. If that character decapitates another character,
kills him in some humorous
manner, they have punched another button on our child's keyboard.
It's okay, so they think, but
shouldn't someone be there telling them it's not?
Recently I walked in on my 5 year old son watching
a program on one of the cartoon channels.
The program depicted a blow-up doll being accidentally found on an
airplane while the main
character searched for something else. This blow-up doll was
one that was intended for sex. I
couldn't believe that this children's channel would put something like
that on television. Needless to
say, my son doesn't watch that program anymore, at my house.
He says his mother allows him to
watch it at her house. So, I don't know whether I'm making any
headway or not. Prayer and
consistency is my only ally.
Lets back up again to 1979. When we started
the day, we pledged allegiance to the flag and
prayed to God for a meaningful day. Today's school doesn't because
it's illegal. You know, like
drugs are illegal.
When the word Christianity is mentioned, many people
turn their nose up, turn away, and or spout off some ridiculous set of
adjectives and adverbs describing their belief of Christ based on nothing.
Isn't it fulfillment of prophecy? Didn't Jesus say we would be
persecuted for professing Him?
To be continued:
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