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"Live fast, love hard, die young..."

Just a note to say that I have observed that my children's generation does everything on steroids. Everything is over the top these days. And I mean everything. They can't just decorate their house for Christmas. No, it has to have a theme. It has to be all out. They all watch HGTV and the food channels. I haven't found many in that generation that don't. And everything has to beat their friends, neighbors, whoever. It's all a competition now. No one can sit back and be simple. Life just moves really fast these days, and no one just relaxes. It reminds me of an old movie quote, "Live hard, die young and be a good-looking corpse" or something like that.

I tried to tell my 30 something co-worker today how life used to be so much simpler and easier and less stressful 30 years ago. No one was struggling like they do now or worrying like they are now. When I started my first job in advertising in Dallas in the late 70's, the question was, "Would you like a full page or a double-truck?" (sigh) Life was so sane back then, and not because I was younger. It's like the earth is spinning faster and faster. I feel like we're on a merry-go-round that is speeding up rather than slowing down. Like you want to throw up. I just long for more relaxed times when you could go outside and play. When you had time to stare at the stars. When everything wasn't a stupid contest to beat someone else. I wonder if they are happier in third world countries where they don't have all of this stress? We've become so independent here in America, we're all living in separate houses, trying to connect with electronics. Maybe in Africa they are all running free. I don't know. I just think it's gone too far.

It's like we need a reset button...

"What the world needs now, is love, sweet. love..."

In looking at today's headlines, it's real easy to get discouraged... I guess that's true every day. But 2 of the biggest stories are the man that had a heart attack at a Target during the Black Friday rush, and people just stepped over him. Finally a nurse gave the man CPR, but he died on his way to the hospital. Or how about the wife that knew her husband was molesting boys and did nothing. And ESPN knew about it but sat on the story for 9 years. Or how about Herman Cain having yet another woman saying she had an affair with him for 13 years....I could go on all night.

But here's the point I want to make. The more God is removed from our society, the more we will hear these types of stories. We took God and prayer out of the schools and the schools are failing miserably. We removed most censorship in media and have the most absolute lack of civility we have ever had.

And we can argue politics "til the cows come home" but until someone's heart is changed, they aren't going to change their minds. Conservatives are people of faith. Our actions stem from what we believe. All of us. If you believe in the Ten Commandments, then you believe that murder will send you to hell. And it causes you to have a fear of God. And when you love God with all of your heart, you want to please Him, as you would the love of your life.

When you don't believe in God, you don't fear eternal damnation, and you don't have a love for other people. The only way I can explain someone, lots of people, walking OVER someone in Target who has just had a heart attack, is someone with no soul. No love. No compassion. They have a black heart.

It used to be in this country that most people had faith but this is changing rapidly. And if we don't watch out, we will become like the French or even the Chinese. It is our faith that has made this country one of heroes - one of givers - and one of leaders.

This country and it's people need Jesus. He's the only one that can take a black heart and turn it pure as snow. For too long Christians have sat in the back seat in America. We have slowly allowed our freedoms to be taken away. In my small town we have an atheist mayor who wanted to remove the nativity scene from our downtown. It took a private group of 45 people to insist that we have one (as we always have) and it had to be from private donations. You have to start with the small battles.

When you read in 1st Corinthians, it says "the greatest of these is love." Without love, the rest of it is just stuff. We need to have love and we need to show love. We need to be unselfish and do the opposite of what the world tells us. The world says to look out for number one, but God says put someone else's needs before your own. He promises to take care of us. We don't have to worry. Start today. Do something nice for someone and not because there is an ulterior motive. Do it as a gift - a gift that doesn't have to be repaid. It starts with us, we CAN turn this nation around with God's help.

One person at a time...

"It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you."

Just read that an 8 year old boy from Ohio has been taken away from his mother and put in foster care. Why, you ask? Because he is overweight... He weighs 215 lbs.

This makes me nauseous. Now we have the weight police taking children from mothers? The article says they want to hire a personal trainer to go to the foster home. Why couldn't it be to his mother's home and keep him with someone who loves him? The state agency says the mother isn't doing enough to control his weight. But the mother said she has worked hard to get her son to shed pounds. She just hasn't been able to get him to keep it off. His mother told the Plain Dealer newspaper, "Of course I love him. Of course I want him to lose weight. It's a lifestyle change, and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying." And Arthur Caplan (a University of Pennsylvania ethicist) told the Plain Dealer, "A third of kids are fat. We aren't going to move them all to foster care. We can't afford it and I'm not sure there are enough foster parents to do it."

Wake up my friends, look what is happening...

"Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal."

In my effort to be positive today, you may have already seen this, but I found this to be the most inspiring thing I can say this morning.

It is a story of a journalist for ABC's 20/20, Kimberly Launier, who was interviewing the parents of a fallen soldier from New Hampshire, Justin Rollin. They were playing with their son's dog, Hero, whose rescue from the Iraq War zone where their son died, was a story all it's own. As she was filming them with the dog, the mother would hug Hero and say, "Justin, are you in there?" It was her way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in their backyard. All of a sudden, the clouds broke and a light began to solidify in a beam directly down on Hero in a kind of vertical halo. When this happened, the mother turned to look at Kimberly, and they both were in astonishment. Kimberly said she couldn't wait to play it back to make sure if her camera caught the stunning beam (which you can see, untouched, not photoshopped above.) When she saw that it did, she was so happy that she burst out dancing, and said it was a great moment to share with Justin's parents. They all laughed and wondered if it was a sign from Justin. I think yes, a sign from God, telling them Justin is with Him, watching from heaven.

I think we're all in the need for signs from above lately...

Black Friday 2011 police brutality buckeye arizona

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it..."

Thanksgiving. A time when we reconnect with our extended family and make the most delicious meal of the year. A time when we pause to reflect on all of the many, many, MANY blessings that God has bestowed upon us. Unless you are the president of the United States.

Today, Thanksgiving day, our president gave his radio address thanking 'pilgrims, pioneers, and patriots.' He called Thanksgiving a 'celebration of community.' But he left out the most important thing - the reason for the season - God.

If you're not thanking God, you are denying where the blessings are actually coming from. You're missing the whole point. Or as one pastor pointed out today, "To give thanks for luck is to deny God."

Maybe that's why things aren't getting any better...