I don’t expect you to understand everything I’ve written at this time. Use this information to refer to as you grow and mature. The ideas are not meant to be the one and only word on the subjects discussed….just my personal ideas.

Each person needs to start somewhere in their beliefs and then to study and search for their own ideas on the subject. There are different kinds of teachers: pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, senior high and post-secondary or the military. Each one is different and each one has a specific reason for being and not one of them is any more important than the other.

The pre-school teachers are the first contact that a child has with schools and teachers and as such, they should be extremely tolerant, happy-go-lucky and possess the patience of Job.

The kindergarten teacher is one step above but is the beginning of organized instruction and has to possess the attributes of the pre-school teacher also.

Elementary teachers take the student through the educational process one step at a time, always learning a little more and improving.

By the time a student gets to Junior High, they should have most of the education basics understood and now they begin to get different teachers with expertise in different areas and they continue to gain knowledge and experiences that extend into high school and post-secondary or the military.

I am like the kindergarten teacher to you. My job is to teach some basic ideas and help you to get excited about learning more. There are others who will give you more knowledge as you go along. Learn from each and never be too busy to teach someone else.

As you experience these different teachers however, be careful to compare whatever they tell you using God’s Word as your basis. His Word is true and never changes even if people’s views of that Word do. There will be false prophets and teachers along the way and if they don’t follow the Truth……don’t follow them!!

You know, not too far from here is a family (belonging to the Mennonite Church, I believe) that keeps a sign-board next to the road. They change the message every so often and one of the messages that I remember in particular was: “Good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits.” I thought that was a good thing to remember. And I know this family practices what they preach because way back when I was working for the County Road Commission in the summer-time, (while going to college) we were working by their home putting in big tiles for road drainage.

It was hot and in the afternoon, the mother and daughters brought homemade lemonade out to us. And they did it each day we worked there. It was a kindness I’ll never forget. It was a good habit to remember. I’m sure they don’t remember but I always will and I will do my best to pass along that kindness to strangers.

There will be a lot of things happen in your lives that you will have to make choices about. There will be people who say things that you don’t agree with at first but they will try to convince you to believe them using the argument that there are a lot of other people who believe as they do and that many people can’t be wrong.

There will be times when you hear groups of people calling for change because the old ways or laws do not pertain to their modern-day world. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it’s bad. Be careful. There are good fundamental values that a person learns and lives by and they will be challenged from time to time but you will be fine if you remember them.

There have been some instances in history that show large groups of people believing the wrong thing and getting in trouble because of it. According to the Bible, there were two towns, Sodom and Gomorrah, that had been literally taken over by groups of people doing things that weren’t right and God was displeased with them. He sent all kinds of messages to them to get them to clean up their act but they wouldn’t.

Finally, God said that if they didn’t listen to Him, He would destroy the cities and all the people in them. Still, the people didn’t believe Him. They continued their ways and even drew more people into their cities and ways. They adopted the idea that surely, this many people couldn’t be wrong. And…..more and more people joined them as they saw that God had not chastised them. And finally, they thought, maybe there is no God at all and if so, why shouldn’t they live it up?

But………………….one day………God had had enough !! And it didn’t matter what the people in the towns believed. It didn’t matter how many of them had come to believe the same thing. They were wrong in their thinking and now they needed to be punished. So…..God rained down fire and brimstone on the towns and they were destroyed and so were the people that were in them. All the while they were probably saying: “But there are so many of us, we can’t all be wrong!”

Another example is the story of Noah. In this story, a great many people of the earth had forgotten their fundamental beliefs and had gone along with the crowd. They did things that made God angry. So angry in fact that God told one man, Noah, to build a huge boat for himself, his family and a number of other creatures.

The reason he told Noah this is that Noah had proven to God that he could be trusted to do whatever God told him. And it took years and years to build this boat. And where it was built, there was no water anywhere around to float it. You can be sure that the people made fun of and ridiculed Noah. But……………the day came when it began to rain. And rain!!

The people still went around saying: “but, we can’t all be wrong. There are so many of us that believe the same thing. Surely God wouldn’t destroy us all.” And………………….it rained and rained! The water began to rise and soon it was deep enough so the people had to climb onto the roofs of their houses.

And the people said: “We are many, surely God wouldn’t destroy us all!”

The rain kept falling and the people on the rooftops drowned. Others climbed into trees. But, the rain didn’t stop.

Soon, there was enough water to float Noah’s boat and he and his family, that had been laughed at for so many years, were bobbing on the water like a cork. The water kept rising and the people in the trees drowned. Those that were left were running up the mountains saying: “But, there were so many of us that thought the same way. We couldn’t have all been wrong. Surely, God wouldn’t destroy us all!”

The rains kept on, the water rose and as the last people stood on the tops of the mountains, looking out over the all-encompassing waters, filled with dead bodies floating in them, they said this through their tears: “But, we couldn’t have all been wrong…..could we?? There were so many of us……………….”

Later, after they were all gone, the waters began to recede and soon Noah sent a dove out of the boat and it returned with a twig from a tree and he knew that it was over. The day came when the water had gone away and Noah and his family could leave their boat and once again walk on the earth according to the teachings of God.

As more and more descendents of Noah populated the world however, here and there, once in a while, there was someone who was misled in their thinking and then misled others. It still happens today. That’s why it’s important for you to search for the “Truth.” And don’t just take my word for it. Look for yourself. Study God’s word yourself. Make up your own mind. But, be careful you aren’t misled by groups of people who say: “But, there are so many of us, we can’t all be wrong. Surely, if we were wrong, God wouldn’t destroy all of us! Would He??”

And just so you don’t get the idea that large groups of people being misled or swayed by others only happened in the past, here’s one example of something happening today.

(this was written in approximately 1992 but is still going on today in 2010)

You girls (my daughters) are too young to remember part of this but you’ll definitely recognize the last part. It goes like this:

A few years ago, well maybe 40 or so (in the 1950’s), television was just getting started. We didn’t have one in our home until 1956 or ’57. Anyway, the programming was much different than today. (1992) Society was different too with regard to it’s morals and beliefs. Those things were held in higher esteem and certain words, phrases or conduct was not allowed on the airwaves of radio or television.

One phrase that was especially taboo was “My God!” or “Oh, my God!” unless of course it was being used during a sermon or religious service. It was considered sacrilegious to mutter this on public airwaves. But…..slowly, just a little bit at a time, the phrase became more and more common. People who were brought up with the idea that these were “special” words, gradually accepted the phrase as just a common exclamation with no real reference to the “Supreme Being.”

A lot of people who heard this phrase being used would hesitate a moment when they heard someone else use it, waiting to see if lightning was going to strike the person for uttering such a thing. But…..the lightning didn’t come and slowly but surely more and more people began to use the phrase and it became more commonplace. There have been people, who, after hearing these now-common words used so often, even used them without thinking about it, sort of because of a sub-conscious desire to be part of the group, I guess. I’ve done it a couple of times too, but then thankfully, been reminded by my Guardian Angels that it is not the thing to do and I apologized to God for it.

People don’t necessarily plan to follow the crowd in doing something they know they shouldn’t…..it just happens. And…..if the lightning doesn’t strike, well, maybe it’s not as bad as they thought. But remember one thing! Right is right and wrong is wrong and all the excuses in the world won’t make a wrong a right.

When you feel that tug on your spirit and you know in your heart of hearts that something is either right or wrong………LISTEN TO YOUR SPIRIT !!!!!!

After all, there may come a time when a lot of people are running for the high ground and yelling:…….”but, there were so many of us……we couldn’t have all been wrong………could we????”