The Easy Road to Hell

In a comment on a previous post, our editor, Mary Ann said referring to past generations, “Life was harder but it was healthier. Hard work taught valuable lessons and kept kids out of trouble.”

WOW!  That statement says a LOT.

What made life healthier?  Life was not nearly so infected with vulgar temptations on a nonstop basis.  Our government had not deprived us of the “food for thought” we all need in our lives----symbols of faith such as stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them at our court houses,

prayer in schools, songs in music classes that echoed what we heard in church, and elected leaders who were not afraid to give credit to the Creator for the blessings we have, knowing it is from the Almighty that all things come.  Mothers were doing what mothers do best and fathers were providing for and protecting them.  Kids were reared by their parents and not the state.  They belonged to and were the responsibility of their parents and not “the village.”  Those same parents had the best interest of the child in mind and not the needs of society at large, run by men that see in youth only a future work force or a passive electorate and not a little soul in need of salvation. 

When it comes to “hard work and valuable lessons” one wonders today if the word hard has lost most of its meaning.  The Church teaches us that we should fast, but that’s hard and most resist doing it, or engage in it very seldom, and only when nearly forced to do so.  We want everything to be easy and consequently we have very little self-mastery.  When you have trouble understanding or begin to believe that doing what is hard is not worth the effort, you eventually look for the very wide path of least resistance.