IT"S A FAMILY TRADITION

It has been on my mind for some time now to write this article to all my friends and stress the point about families sticking together. Some time ago I made the statement to my cousin that there was not to many members of our family left to tell the history of our great family. The elders are just about gone. They are passing on to meet their reward. The torch is being passed on to the younger generation to carry on the family name and to keep the family history intact and to tell the stories of our forefathers and their fathers. How soon we would forget if it was not passed down from generation to generation, family to family, and reunion to reunion.

This is the same way that God wants His church to work and to carry on. We need to pass on to our children and their children's children the wonderful blessings that God has bestowed on us as His children. The remembrance of camp meetings, brush arbor meetings, camp meetings, the revivals, and all the miracles that we witnessed should be told over and over again to the younger generation. It is our heritage and the stories should be told over and over again so they will never forget. As Christians it is our duty to do this.

Was not this, that I speak about, what our Lord commanded the Hebrews in the old testament after they left Egypt? They were to teach their children of how God delivered them and to teach them His commandments, how he rolled back the waters of the mighty Red Sea, how they were fed with manna from above, how their clothes

never wore out, and all the other miracles that took place. As God's people are we not to do the same? Yes we are! ^A

The fact of the matter is this: There is a falling away of God's teachings in the family home, a falling away of meeting God's standards. The family use to go to church together, then the parents just sent their children to church, and now the parents do not even send their kids to church. It use to be that the family gathered around the table, said grace, and had dinner together as a family. Family problems were discussed and dealt with. Now the kids eat at McDonalds and the parents at the club. There are no or hardly any family functions. This is what is happening in the majority of homes across the land. We must remember as a nation, that professes Christianity, it is the home and Godly parents that start the training of Godly leaders that will lead this country in the right direction. It is the home and the duty of good parents to plant the seeds of right and wrong, the church, the commandments, and the love of our Savior. The Word of God must be the criteria for all things; the command given to the Hebrews back then has not changed, it is the same today.

Our children have seeds planted in their minds everyday by the school they attend, what they watch on TV, and see on the Internet. The seeds of wrong are planted in their minds everyday and it is the duty of the parents teach them right and to help mold them into what they should be. I remember years ago when the former president Nixon said, “It is the family unit that is the building blocks of this country.”No truer words were ever spoken. It is the family unit and their relationship with God that makes the building blocks of this nation.

The seeds of wrong are already planted in our children's mind from the time they start to school and if they are not told in the home what is right then how will they know any difference? How will they know that is not alright for Steve to marry Eve when they are told in our schools, across the land, that it is a excepted style. How will they know that abortion is a sin when the schools are telling them different and a government that will give them an abortion on demand. Who will tell your kids about the Lord? Not the schools because prayer and Bible reading are not allowed anymore. There is no more Bible on the teacher or principles desk anymore. The list could go on and on. The point is the parents must take control of the teaching of their kids and training them in the things that are right.

One of the greatest blessings in my life is that I was raised in a Christian home by parents that not only seen that I went to church, they went with me. I was instructed, loved, and brought up to do right. Those things never left me. I did the same thing for my kids as my parents did for me and they are doing the same for their kids. Not only is it a duty, it should be a family tradition to tell the old, old, story of Jesus and His love to future generations. If we, as parents, sow good seeds now we and our children, will reap the benefits later.

A And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest In thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between Thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6: 6-9)