YES, I WAS DRUGGED AS A CHILD

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up? " I replied: I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather. I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me. I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed. Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place. (AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

WHO'S LEADING WHO?

We should never allow ourselves to believe that the Lord just accepts us as we are, that was never a part of the program. He has always asked us to change, to repent, to get better, and to overcome the things that cause us to sin. When we stop aligning our will with Heavenly Father, thinking that He will align His will with us, that's when we have lost our way. For we are not the appointed counsel to Father in Heaven, He is ours.

19 OF 21 CIVILIZATIONS HAVE FALLEN

An ominous warning was voiced by Laurence M. Gould, former president of Carleton College: 

"I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I don’t think our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care."

Arnold Toynbee, a British economic historian, has pointed out that 19 of 21 civilizations have died from within and not by conquest from without. There were no bands playing and flags waving when these civilizations decayed. It happened slowly, in the quiet and the dark when no one was aware; people become apathetic, ignoring the truth, as the slow evil of decay surrounds them.

A lie doesn't become a truth, a wrong doesn't become a right and a evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.