Author: E.Y. Redal

I wish They Were Still Around

TAG FamilyI see young folks looking at their smart phones all the time. It seems as though their eyes are glued to the screens. They don’t see the colored leaves or the blue skies any more. I think spending a day in the 30’s would be good for them. For instance they would walk to school and come home with chores to do along with their home work. They would do their home work using a tablet, which was sheets of paper held together with a cardboard cover and backing. Their chores would be to chop and carry in wood for the stoves, make sure that there was enough water in the reservoir and water cooler. If not, they had to carry water from the pump outside, and help with dinner preparations. These are the things I did, but if you lived on a farm there would be more to do like milking the cows or gathering eggs.

If you needed to go to the bathroom, you’d go outdoors to the outhouse and instead of toilet paper you had a sheet or two of the sears catalog to use. If there was a little time left before bed time you would make up your own games and play outside, even if there was snow on the ground. And bathing was done in the wash tubs, the cleanest kid had his bath first!

There was no electricity so you had to make your own music. Most homes had a piano but some had only a guitar but everyone gathered around and sang the songs that were popular  like “Put on your old gray bonnet, with the blue ribbons on it and hitch old dobbin to the sleigh.” or “My buddy”. There were stories too and usually there was a story teller to tell them.

It would be quite a change for our young people wouldn’t it? But we young people had fun too! I don’t know but I think going back would be more fun than gazing at their smart phones or tablets all the time.

I got tired writing all the things we did in the 30’s!  I guess the television sets, computers, cell phones and tablets have their places in today’s world. However, I think the young people should take their eyes off their smart phones and tablets to see what’s going on in the world! Don’t you?

 

We Need More Circle Maker Prayers In America!

I have been reading The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson and it has taught me not to pray as I have, but to pray without ceasing and to pray for what needs to happen, but praise Him for what He has already done in that prayer. That idea is spread all through the Bible, especially in the book of Joshua where the people marched around the city seven times and the city’s walls fell down. After that was done, God said, “See what I have given you?”

Mr. Batterson begins his book by telling about a man, Honi, who lived in the first century before Christ was born. A drought was in the land and the eccentric sage still believed God would answer prayer though most of the people living at that time didn’t. Honi drew a circle and kept growing circles around him and then he prayed for rain. He didn’t give up, but prayed for days, sitting inside the circle. Then rain came but it was so heavy that people were complaining so he prayed for a gentle rain and right away the heavy rain turned to a gentle rain. It is a story you would enjoy reading.

Mr. Batterson’s story is about his own circle making prayers and it does work! I have decided many of us could pray that way. America needs our prayers as never before. We could lose all of our freedoms. Many of us have wondered what we could do to change all of this. We are told to “Stand up” often enough and maybe that going to the voting box just isn’t enough. Let’s try drawing a circle around a picture of America and start praying to bring our country back to what it was. We can’t really circle America but with our picture of the circle we can pray, and pray until we see things begin to change and then praise Him for what he has already done. It wouldn’t hurt to fast at the same time!

If this worked for Honi and Mr. Batterson, why wouldn’t it work for us? It will, and I’m going to start by drawing my circles today. How about you?