We have come a long way from when the Baby Boomers first made their appearance.  At that time, parents knew that hard work was the only way to achieve wealth and set out to work incredibly long hours so that their kids could go to college and hopefully .... have it easier.

  Most of these parents did not have a chance to go to college but they had an incredible work ethic.  That work ethic made up for their lack of academic training.  Their parenting skills may have been a little flawed, but their hearts were in the right place.

Most early boomers worked hard and lived modest lives.   They wanted more than the generation before them and passed this discontentment on to their own children.  Less and less emphasis was being placed on work ethic, yet more and more emphasis on entitlement.  The American Dream was translated into materialism.  Materialism has taken over and today, many act as though they do not know the difference between a want and a need. Many don't care where things come from as long as they get them.

Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.  If we sought after God the way we seek after other things, we would be a mighty nation, now.  No one could stand before us.  But, read the book!  From the beginning of time, whenever a nation entered into a time of peace and rest from outside forces, the fighting began within and against themselves.  Nothing like some pressure from the outside threatening our national security to pull us back together again.

Except, even that isn't working now days.  God says that without a vision the people perish.  He also says that His people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.  A long time ago, the people demanded a king, over God.  They felt they could get more out of a King then they could from God.  In a way they were right.  It's just that, again, as in the Garden of Eden, what they wanted and what they needed were two different things.  God doesn't withhold things to be mean.  He gives us what we need.  His love for us is preventative.  If only we could accept that.

 An old commercial once said:  "You've come a long ways Baby ...." 

The commercial shows a beautiful woman puffing away on a long, slender cigarette called Virginia Slims.  If we women are going to get lung cancer, we might as well get it from a womanly approved source.  Right?

Someone has to ask themselves though, considering the cost, has it all been worth it?  To gain the whole world and forfeit our souls?   At what point do we accept the fact that as we continue to reject God's Influence over our nation, He will remove His Presence.  Our enemies will still be there, they will just have a much stronger hold.  Then, who will we pray to and where will we go in our time of need?  Our idols .... er, material junk will not do us a bit of good at that point.