Wednesday July 13 2016  GOD’S DESIGNS ARE UNIQUE

 

A RARE FIND

By Kathleen Martens

July 13, 2016

 

We each are different

In our own way.

God’s designs are unique

Each and every day.

 

As new lives are born

Each babe is so pure,

And God places within them

A gift that will endure.

 

A lifetime of searching

Discovering who we are

And using our gifts

To take us far.

 

We are not promised

An easy road

But the Lord promises

To help carry our load.

 

We are not assured

That there will be no pain,

But we can rest assured

It will be for our gain.

 

Become the best you

That you can be.

And I will try to become

The very best me.

 

No matter how different

We are from each other,

We can still reach out

And love one another.

 

God’s amazing creativity

Designed an exclusive YOU!

And no one else in the world

Will touch the lives that you do.

 

So brush off your talent

And hone to perfection,

And perhaps you’ll discover

Your perfect direction.

 

Because we’re unique

And one of a kind.

To the world,

WE ARE EACH A RARE FIND!

 

As we look around, read about, and see firsthand the chaos and destruction of the world around us, it is no wonder that so many people seem to lack joy, especially when terror is instigated by our own citizens toward their fellowman.  How sad is it that people cannot lay down their hate and discrimination, and instead, embrace each individual, showing courtesy, kindness, and respect to all, regardless of color, race, country of origin, or language spoken.  If we as a country cannot even get along with each other, how is it that we can hope for world peace?

Let’s take our relationships to an even closer level.  How is it that parents and children cannot live peacefully under one roof, or husband and wife, or sibling with sibling? Where is the breakdown?  Yes, we are all created uniquely and differently, but should that make us antagonists?

What in our society has failed to instigate us, as a nation, to pull together?  As I look back over the last 60 years of my life I see such a change in our society.  Sixty years ago I was a student in grammar school.  My memories are of orderly classrooms and well behaved children.  In one school that I attended there were no more than three or four non-black children in my classroom.  I don’t remember feeling any discrimination against being one, of two, “white” girls in the room.  I had friends.  I had fun.   I was accepted. 

I remember another school where the ratio of black to white students was reversed.  I don’t ever remember there being any discrimination or dislike of those of another color.  The schools I attended were in the San Francisco Bay area.  We were just little people sitting side by side.  I was the little girl who spent the night at a friend’s house who just happened to be a different color.  Race didn’t seem to matter back then.  Or maybe we were too young to know we were supposed to “hate” each other or think one better than the other.  Actually, I quietly envied her for her beautiful deep black skin.  

I do believe that had I been raised in the south, the place my parents came from, perhaps I would have had a different outlook.  Not because of who I was as a little girl, but because I would have been taught by those I lived close to that we (meaning the whites) were not to mingle with the blacks.  I truly believe that being prejudiced is taught, passed on from one generation to the next.  My father was prejudiced.  My mother was not.  I know now that she fought hard that her kids would not be subjected to our father’s verbiage and attitude against the blacks.  I never was. 

Then the 1960’s reared its head.  And life changed.  If you were alive back then you may remember for yourselves.  If you are younger you may want to talk to some older friends and family members and question them about how it was for them where they lived and how they remember it.  My question is, why has our culture changed so radically since then?  There are so very many different answers which could be given.   My opinion is that it began in 1963 when prayer was taken out of the schools.  As I look back now and read the statistics of all that took place after prayer was removed from schools I realize what a tragic and disheartening event was that fateful day.  I remember it well.  It was big news.  It was the beginning of a great cultural change that reverberates to this day.  I found an informative website when I googled “cultural changes caused by prayer removal from schools”.  I have included a portion of the statistical accounts of some of the negative changes.  If you are interested in reading more please click on the website and read what interests you.  I found it quite amazing.

As I look back over the years I realize that removing prayer from our public forum started our country down a slippery slope.  Removing prayer was like kicking the cornerstone out from under a tall and mighty building.  An integral part of our society was grounded on God and prayer was our communal connection to Him.  

I have more to say but because it is written so succinctly in the article I have included below I will refrain from being redundant.  If you have a chance please connect to the site and read for yourself why our country is in such decline.  And the removal of prayer from our public life is only the tip of the iceberg when you realize the down fall we have experienced in so many cultural changes through new laws that have since gone into effect.

We are all different.  We see the world from a unique parallax.  We each have our own preferences, biases, backgrounds and teachings.  But the one thing we have lost as a country is our solid foundation which was built on God.

Excerpt from the web address:  http://www.inplainsite.org/what_happened_when_the_praying.html

“What Really Caused The Downward Spiral?

In the words of Greg Koukl

…The elimination of the fear of God, symbolized by the Supreme courts actions in the matter of school prayer, led to a dramatic increase in crime, venereal disease, premarital sex, illiteracy, suicide, drug use, public corruption, and other social ills. This documented by Specialty Research Associates, under the direction of David Barton, that has released a report entitled America: To Pray or Not to Pray. Below are just a few of the examples featured in Barton’s report.

1. Young People
2. For 15 years before 1963 pregnancies in girls ages 15 through 19 years had been no more than 15 per thousand.  After 1963 pregnancies increased 187% in the next 15 years.
3. For younger girls, ages 10 to 14 years, pregnancies since 1963 are up 553%.
4. Before 1963 sexually transmitted diseases among students were 400 per 100,000. Since 1963, they were up 226% in the next 12 years.
5. The Family
6. Before 1963 divorce rates had been declining for 15 years. After 1963 divorces increased 300% each year for the next 15 years.
7. Since 1963 unmarried people living together is up 353%
8. Since 1963 single parent families are up 140%.
9. Since 1963 single parent families with children are up 160%.
10. Education
11. The educational standard of measure has been the SAT scores. SAT scores had been steady for many years before 1963. From 1963 they rapidly declined for 18 consecutive years, even though the same test has been used since 1941.
12. In 1974-75 the rate of decline of the SAT scores decreased, even though they continued to decline. That was when there was an explosion of private religious schools. There were only 1000 Christian schools in 1965. Between 1974 to 1984 they increased to 32,000.
13. That could have an impact if the private schools had higher SAT scores. In checking with the SAT Board it was found that indeed the SAT scores for private schools were nearly 100 points higher than public schools.
14. In fact the scores were at the point where the public schools had been before their decline started in 1963 when prayer and Bible reading/ instruction was removed from the schools.
15. The scores in the public schools were still declining.
16. Of the nation’s top academic scholars, three times as many come from private religious schools, which operate on one-third the funds as do the public schools.
17. The Nation
18. Since 1963 violent crime has increased 544%.
19. Illegal drugs have become an enormous & uncontrollable problem.
20. The nation has been deprived of an estimated 30 million citizens through legal abortions just since 1973.”

 

God, thank You most of all for a mother that grounded me in who You are and how important You are to my very existence.

Thank You God that You are still God regardless of what the world may believe.

Thank You for the simple and elegant beauty of this day.

Thank You for loving me.

 

HAVE A GREAT AFTERNOON.  GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU!