I recieved this today and it got me to thinking about the freedom we have under God. You know when a man builds something and it doesn't perform to his specifications, he just takes it apart and builds something new. We replace it or modify it or just plain throw it away. How many times has someone in our society gone out and bought a blender and been disatisfied with the results, and sent the thing off to the dump. As men we are so impatient when our inventions start getting independent on us, and yet we seem to expect God to just sit by and wait while we do what we want instead of what he wants. If you build yourself a car and you jump in the first time to drive it to Texas, and instead of taking you to Texas you end up in south America, your not going to be too happy with your car. God on the other hand has given man freedom, in the hopes that one day we will do things his way of our own volition. And we take them freedom he has given us and go our own way all the while paying unbelievable consequences for our actions. As a parent, I understand how it must all look to God. When I patiently tell my two year old that going into the street is dangerous and will have dire consequences. She thinks I have no idea what I am talking about and runs into the street anyway. Even though I know better than she does that she will get run over, she still wants to go her own way. God knows better than we do the eternal consequence of our actions and yet we still try to go our own way. How it must pain and hurt him. I know it would hurt me to watch my child get run over by a car. Now some will say then why doesn't God pull us out of the traffic? The answer is, he did, that's why he sacrificed his Son. All we have to do is run into the arms of our Father, to safety. Little Bit Farm Society Has Changed "I grew up in rural America in the '50's and '60's. On any given day, you could walk through the high school parking lot and observe that half the vehicles parked there were trucks with windows rolled down and doors unlocked. Most of them carried, as standard equipment, an FFA sticker (Future Farmers of America for you city folks) and a gun rack with at least one gun, usually loaded. You could make the same observation at any of the four high school campuses in our county. Amazingly, I do not ever recall reading or hearing about mass shootings in any of those high schools. What has changed in America is not the accessibility of guns, but the character of man. On the wall in my parents home is a plaque awarded to my father in recognition of service for 27 years on the local school board. He told me that for years, a standard requirement on every Teacher's contract was membership in a local church. I remember starting every school day with the pledge and a prayer. I remember when girls who got pregnant in high school were ashamed, when abortions were illegal, when the divorce rate was not 50% because couples stayed together for the kid's sake, when there were no X-rated movies, when milk cartons didn't have missing kids faces on them and I didn't know anyone personally who used drugs. I remember when kids were taught respect for authority and accountability to God. I hear people say that the good old days weren't always so good but please don't tell me you think these are better. Last night I attended a high school football game that was covered by local and national news. The news coverage was not about the football teams, but about the defiance of a court order by one brave little Texas town to preserve the right to pray before a football game. The more this country struggles to free itself from religion, the more we become entangled in the consequences. If people are taught that they came from slime, the obvious questions and consequences must follow; What is the purpose of my existence [hopelessness], who made you the boss of me [lawlessness], why are your rules good and mine bad [relativism], what does it matter how I live if I came from slime and return to slime [immorality and inhumanity]? I realize that in any given poll, the vast majority of Americans claim to believe in God. I claim to believe that running is good for me but that does not make me a runner. Putting on my running shoes and running makes me a runner. The climbing abortion rate, murder rate, divorce rate, alcoholism and drug abuse rate, child and spousal abuse rate contradict that claim and prove that actions speak louder than words. It is an observable truth that the best time you will ever make on any American City freeway is on Sunday morning because there are no traffic jams getting to church. For those who believe that separation of church and state is not enough, that the world would be better off with no church at all, ask yourself this question. How many hospitals, universities, orphanages, homeless and abuse shelters have been founded by the ACLU or American Atheist Society? It is the inclusion of the word Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian, etc., in the name of so many of these institutions that proves by actions, not just words, who really cares for the suffering of mankind and desires to make the world better. The question that people should be asking is not "Why does God allow tragedies?" but "When will we realize that no nation, in the history of the world, has ever separated itself from God and evolved to a better society?" Of course, to answer, you would have to know history. Most people, it would seem, prefer People magazine." ~*~ Author Unknown ~*~ God Bless you all.

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), August 25, 2000

Answers

VERY WELL SAID!!!!!! Also on the comment about, "why does God allow tragedies", I've always wondered why these things are blamed on God instead of Satan who is the real one at fault in the tragedies of this world. In a time of tragedy, you need to turn to God for comfort. He's always there, even when things seem at their worst.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), August 25, 2000.

Amen.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), August 25, 2000.

Thank You, my friend ! You said it all !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), August 25, 2000.

Little bit - what is wrong with coming from "slime"? Is that worse than dirt?

-- (clb@watervalley.net), August 25, 2000.

Little Bit, Thank You! Wendy

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), August 26, 2000.

Actually although our bodies were formed from the dirt, who we are comes from the breath of God himself. Slime just can't measure up to that.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), August 26, 2000.

Wow! Thanks a lot. I'm going to print this off & post it at work. John

-- John (jsmengel@hotmail.com), August 27, 2000.

Little Bit,

A agree in a large measure with what you say, but I for one REFUSE to get in the trap of telling my teenage daughter how great my world was growing up and how lousy her world is today. On one side of their mouths, my parents would blast my sisters and me about the "long-hair- hippy-pot-smoking-freaks" of my generation and then laugh and tell us how their parents said the world went to Hell when FDR started Social Security and how they demanded all these goodies after WWII. And THEIR parents jumped on them for roaring around in automobiles and going to speak-easys. And on and on and on.

My daughter only knows today. Yesterday is in history books and fading photographs. I've got my hands full just getting her through the here and now. The "then and there" was my childhood, not hers. This is the best time of HER life and she has my 100% undivided attention and support. And what's her attitiude?

"My generation is going to fix what your generation screwed up".

So, Amen to you Little Bit for telling us how it was and how it should be. And Amen to my daughter and millions of kids like her for how it's going to be. You pass the torch, get out of the way and cheer from the sidelines.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), August 28, 2000.

Thanks for the post Little Bit!

The belief that I was no more than primordial goo nearly drove me insane+nearly caused me to commit suicide at the age of 20.Why is my(the X'ers)generation so nihilistic?This is why.

Bless you Little Bit!We have our prayers cut out for us-don't we?

In His Love,~~~Tracy~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), August 30, 2000.