I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

America was long blessed with peace from the Lord, as long as we kept His ways in our national life. From the miraculous origins of our country, defeating one of the major world powers of its time to win our freedom, through the wars our country has fought through the years, our country has been granted victory and continuing liberty by a sovereign God.

Then came the 1960's, with its rebellion against God in so many aspects of our national life. The Vietnam War was the first major conflict where America was effectively defeated by a smaller power. It should have been a warning from God heeded by this people. Instead, we continued down the road to pleasure-seeking, greed, the murderous practice of abortion, and further and further into sin.

America may no longer have the shield of protection provided by God when we followed Him. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah lost that protection when they deserted the Lord and followed pagan idols. How much more will we be stripped of our national blessings from God that we have taken for granted if we continue in these wicked ways?

We're living in a world filled with problems that seem to have no answers. People turn to the experts in worldly wisdom seeking solutions. "More laws, more programs, more money," they cry. "Surely if we legislate enough we can solve all our problems."

The problem with that is that we have lots of laws and lots of well funded programs already, and they aren't working. People are calling for more gun control laws to stop school shootings, even though there are plenty of gun control laws on the books that didn't work to stop the young gunmen that opened fire on their classmates. The schools are beefing up their security, even though many already had armed security guards with metal detectors. Still the cry is on to try more and more of the same things that didn't work in the first place.

Who failed to teach these young men to value the lives of others? Their parents are the primary teachers who failed to lovingly instruct them to value others at least much as themselves. The Bible gives us the book of Proverbs as a child training manual, advising young people, especially young men, to keep to godly ways of love and peace and avoid wicked ways of hatred and destruction. Parents are admonished that it it their duty to teach this wisdom to their children, and punish them proportionate to any offenses that the children commit.

We as a society have largely abandoned child rearing as a primary adult responsibility of those who bear them in favor of day care while the parents pursue careers. Day cares do not raise children! They simply baby sit them, attending to their physical needs. Children cannot raise themselves, either singly or in groups. They don't have the knowledge or experience to teach each other the right way to go.

Parents must return to child raising by Godly wisdom! Your children are infinitely more valuable than a raise, a promotion, even a career! The day care center and the school is not going to raise your child for you. They may educate your child, but they are not providing godly moral guidance anymore since the Supreme Court ordered God, the Bible, and prayer out of the schools. In fact, they may provide the exact opposite in the guise of values clarification and death education!

A child left to grow up as a moral blank slate invariably turns to wicked ways in proportion to the level allowed by his community. As more and more families abandon child raising in the nurture and teaching of the Lord, community tolerance levels sink ever lower. And then the levels of violence and hatred rise in proportion as angry young people, untaught and inexperienced in godly ways to resolve conflicts, strike out at a society that increasingly glories in resolving conflict through direct, violent action.

The solution is an old, tried-but-true one. Turn God's light back on in our society, including our schools. The ultimate source of the problems is sin in the human heart, not the weapons used to commit crimes. When children mercilessly taunt and shun their classmates, and when children retaliate for their hurts with violence, they haven't been taught about God's love and that they should love their fellow students. When the Bible and prayer were taken out of the schools, the darkness descended. At first it crept in, held back by the Biblical teaching the students had already had. But as the years rolled on and new classes of students unexposed to God's Word took their places in the school, the light dimmed to flickers from the students whose parents still taught them about God's ways.

It's no coincidence that many of the students killed or injured are Christians. The Devil is going all out in his final campaigns before the Lord's return, and he is targeting the school children. They are young and inexperienced, and thus easier prey for his schemes, especially if they don't have Christian parents praying for their protection and guidance from the Lord. The unsaved children used to be under an umbrella of protection from the Christian families and teachers praying for all the students, but that umbrella is getting very thin as the present educators are largely anti-Christian and trying to block any exposure to Christianity from enlightening the students.

The solution is both simple and desperately needed. It is perfectly Constitutional to have the Bible and prayer in the schools. Only when the children are once again taught God's ways as the best way to live will we see a turnaround in school violence, as well as violence in society in general. You have to cure the sin problem in the human heart before you can expect to see the development of loving, responsible, law abiding character in children and adults.

Parents, teach your children God's ways from the Bible. Reach out to the children of your neighborhood and draw them into your circle of godly influence. Do what you can to save the little ones while there is still time to reach them. Don't wait until prayer returns to your schools and churches when children pray for their lives under gunfire. Turn the light on!