From Spiritual Decline to Societal Decline

I think I always believed there was a God. When I was growing up everybody went to church. It's just what we did. Not so today. I used to think anyone born in the USA has heard of Jesus Christ, but I am not so sure I can say that anymore. Some of you might remember when you were little, we were taught this little trick with our hands where you put the backs of your hands together, link the fingers of both hands together, close your fingers then point your index fingers together and say, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door and see all the people!" Well, I am afraid if I tried that with little kids someone would ask me, "What's a church?" One of my colleagues reported this recently. I work in an elementary school as a literacy tutor. I work with groups of kids at all grade levels for 30 or 45 minutes a day. Of course, even the appearance of school has completely changed since I was in elementary school. We've gone from rows and seating charts to tables with bouncy balls and sit wherever you want. I'm not saying that is all bad, but I am convinced that these looser approaches to education have not improved the academic landscape in our country or any other landscape in our society either. Also, of course, is all the technology. They have a reading app for kids, that reads to the kid and all they have to do is look at the pictures. I'm not saying that is completely bad either, but really? Is this supposed to be teaching kids to read? Must not be, as most kids are not reading on grade level anymore, and with the arrival of so many bells and whistles in school, the students who want to do anything on their free time other than play video games is few and far between. But I digress. When I was in my early elementary years, we didn't have to wonder if there was a God or what a church was. We used to hear on the radio in the family car, "The family that prays together stays together." When's the last time you heard that, or did you ever hear that? My family was the only divorced family in my grade, and I'm not sure we were not the only divorced family in the whole school, but today, according to an AI Overview, approximately one third of school children have divorced parents. Another source reported that 50% of children will experience the divorce of their parents today. That's not hard to believe since they say 50% of marriages end in divorce. The amazing thing to me is how little most people seem to be bothered by this. And with the frequency of abortion, and the general acceptance of divorce, nothing surprises me anymore. Divorce bothers me because I came from a broken family and it has been a long road to recovery. I cringe at today's divorce statistics and I work with the child victims of this trend. All this tells us is that our culture is in serious decline and we need a spiritual awakening. This is not healthy. We have abandoned God and the signs are all around us. So, I'm just going to conclude by saying the responsibility belongs to all of us to do whatever we can to move things in another direction. The children in our lives can't help themselves. And God will help us because it is a righteous cause. The family has been under attack for far too long. With the early darkness approaching with Standard Time and my being in a bit of a time crunch, since it's Sunday evening and our little fellowship is again meeting on Sunday evenings, I must conclude this and get ready to go. I hope something in this essay will resonate with someone reading it and gradually we can see some improvement in this sad state of affairs.