What is Happening to America
By Doug Harrell
Mitchell County
The thing that is really on my mind this morning is love, love for our children, our friends, our mates, our churches, our schools, our country and our very way of life.
I went to a meeting yesterday and the person at the reception desk was wearing a face mask that had this on it, “I miss America”! Oh wow, what a message! I know I am getting to be an old man and as the scripture tells us, old men will dream dreams.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:” Acts 2:17 KJV
I guess there comes a time in our lives that we reflect on what once was; when we visualize the past and remember the way things used to be in our lives. We remember the hard times and the good times, the struggles that made us who we are. I remember the days as a child getting up at 4:30 every morning and heading to the barn to help milk the cows. I remember the cold hard morning and I remember the laughter between my dad, my brother, and myself as we worked. I remember putting the harness on the old mules, Jack and Jim. I can still see them in my mind’s eye. The thing I remember most is the love and security I felt and the sense of accomplishment I felt at the end of the day when I looked back and saw what we had accomplished. A sense of self-worth that comes from work, love, and laughter! I miss those days!
I miss an America where almost everyone I knew was in church when the doors opened, the America where if anyone in the community had a problem, everyone around pitched in and took care of the situation. An America where men were expected to be men and women were expected to be women. An America where if you were a man you were expected to open the door for a woman and treat her with love and respect. In today’s world, I have actually been told by some women that I will open my own door! I miss America!
Maybe I don’t have the visions I once did as a young man, Maybe I am becoming melancholy in my old age, but I miss the days when preachers did not fear preaching the word of God without being threatened with fines or prison for speaking God’s truths. I miss the days when we had pride in ourselves and were not looking for a handout, a free gift from the government. I miss the days when the pioneer spirit in America was, “I will take care of myself and my family, thank you”!
I guess I am being nostalgic this morning, but I do miss America I grew up in where teachers did not worry about reading scripture every morning in class and where prayer was prayed over the PA system each morning. I miss the days when we had a Christmas play at school and the days where we had Easter vacation, not spring break. I know, I am dreaming the dreams of an old man this morning. I miss my America, land that I loved, land that I cherished and still cherish in my mind. I pray and am fighting back tears as I write. I pray for a return to the values I grew up with, that this great nation would continue to be one the nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We were a nation that valued the unborn as well as the born, a nation where being a Christian was a good thing and you were not thought of as a domestic terrorist because you believed and honored the word of God.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
Lord, please heal our land!
To God be the glory.
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Doug Harrell is a life-long resident of Mitchell County, Owner of Harrell Hill Farms, a member of Bear Creek Baptist Church and former publisher of Blue Ridge Christian News. You can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/doug.harrell.77
You can read more good Christian News from Doug Harrell HERE
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