Anniversary

    Our thirtieth anniversary approacheth. Seems a bit surreal. In a day when marriage is bombarded from all sides, I am thankful for mine.
    I have been reading a book of Jolene's by Rebecca St. James. It has many different stories in it of troubled young ladies and how they found Christ. What struck me is how prevalent troubled youth are, how common. It seems to me there is an anguished cry of troubled souls. Like the children of Israel in Egypt, with the enemy pressing hard, making the bondage stronger.
    There is such a mess of things contributing to it. A lack of Jesus, yes, but somehow people think they can have Jesus and other things. And the other things draw them back into a mess. Somehow the idea of giving up things for Him is anathema. The idea of obedience to that still small voice is abhorrent. Maybe because children are no longer taught obedience due to families in disarray, obeying the Father is very difficult. The way of the transgressor is hard so after much suffering not for righteousness sake but because of doing wrong and giving the enemy footholds in their life, they sometimes make it back to God.
     There is no longer just normal day to day working with patient endurance and acceptance. Welfare and disability are testimony to that. Self has gotten very large like a huge growth that bulges out on every side. Lord, help us to guide our children right and true. Help us to be devout, truely devout. Help us always to show a living God of heaven, who is real and present in our lives. Amen.