TALKING TO THE BOSS

Almighty Father, our collective hearts are broken over the senseless and selfish act that snuffed out the lives of seventeen precious souls in Florida yesterday. Majesty of heaven, Creator of all that is, help us to find an answer for such tragedy and horror. We plead our question and lift up our supplication to Your Worshipful throne. We ask the question knowing full well that the answer might lie within us all, and if this be so, may that certain knowledge throw us to our knees in sobbing regret. We beg you Father, open our eyes, Amen.

Over the last 40 years a terrible thing has happened. We as a society have witnessed, with great indifference, the death of a vital part of God's plan for us. It occurred in silence. It became progressive, malignant as cancer. Hardly an eyebrow was raised as it effectively changed the very landscape of all that we hold dear.

Even in its death and burial, we express an arrogant gait as we tread upon the very grave that once gave life and meaning to the core of our being.

We Morn The Family.

1Ti 5:4 ... they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

Years ago, driving down most any lane in most any city or town late in the afternoon would be met with the sound and sight of children outside. Playing, running, jumping, climbing trees, skinning knees. Mom would come to the front door to peek out and check on the kids. Everybody knew what time dinner was served, and we made sure we were washed up and and ready to eat when Dad got home. Dad had a game he loved to play when any of us kids would show up at the table with unwashed hands. He called it, "Beat the Belt". We discovered that beating the belt was an impossible task.

The dinner table ritual was a really big deal. It was here we related the events of the day, and a few of us was cajoled to confess the day's sins as we stuffed our faces with potatoes and snap beans.

I really noticed yesterday and again today the absolute absence of children playing outside. Rarely do I see a kid on a bike, or a rope swing in a yard. Dinner time is, well, sort of when ever hunger calls. The dinner table now has become the pace where you pick up your plate, and return it empty. You eat where you want. Dad now waltzes in, grabs his plate at the table, then parks himself in front of the tube for Monday night Football. The kids? Well, they sometimes show up, and they just seem to go somewhere until they are hungry again. Welcome to today's family life!

I had lunch yesterday at an eatery located directly across the street from a local High School. It was lunch time. In a matter of moments, I estimate nearly 100 frittering 15, 16 & 17 years-old had magically appeared in this small business. What I missed was the noise that you would assume accompanies such a mass of youthdum. It was odd. Then I took a look around. 100 kids, 100 cell phones, thousands of small fingers flying over tiny keyboards, each child oblivious to any events going on around them. I had to pause a moment to be sure that I was not in the middle of a Twilight Zone Episode.

I finished my bowl of soup and gave up my space to several teens waiting for the "Old Guy" to vacate "Their Spot". I left not knowing that at that very moment in South Florida, for at least 16 souls, texting would cease forever.

Without the family bond, that special core, the daily vital exchange of information, laughter, accountability, confession, and expressions of sincere love, we leave behind a Godless void that results in our children becoming isolationists. The feedback and exchange they once participated in around the family dinner table is now replaced by the cold, indifferent and dangerous world of cyber space. We, you and me, Moms and Dads, Grandpa and Grandma we all turned a blind eye to the evolution of this horror. God would likely agree, in part, to this assessment. But God also knows how crushingly terrible it would be to our hearts to know that we all played a role in the years of arrogant ignorance to the monsters we might be creating when we allowed God to be chased from the classroom, and the family core to be destroyed and replaced with Utube and Grand Theft Auto 4.8. Here is a preview of what's next:

Luk 12:53 "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

Lord God, help us to turn the tide in the remaining time we have here, to breathe new life into our Family Core. Give us the courage, backbone, stamina and wisdom to return to Your plan, Your guide and instill in our sons and daughters the value and bond of Spiritually led family leadership. Our God and our children deserve nothing less, In Christ we pray, Amen.

HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY?