Take a look at your life today; and remember tomorrow, it’s history. Good or bad, it’s history.

In our modern times, it appears we have gotten too busy to teach our children old fashioned values. With our fast paced lifestyle, we are no doubt too dependent on our computers and smart phones. Children are playing with their phones rather than learning common social skills.

Looking back at my school days, when I was young we had a wonderful lady by the name of Mrs. Campbell that taught us Bible stories using a felt board to demonstrate characters of Biblical times. These lessons taught us the value of living our life for Christ. As I look back now, I also realize that memorizing Bible verses was a great exercise for improving our brain activity and it taught us to have compassion and love in our heart.

I really don’t remember any school violence at that time of my life. Today, if we could teach our children to love our neighbors as ourselves, America would be great again.

By looking back into our history, I also realize the simple chores my parents and teachers gave me to do taught good work ethics and the importance of making good decisions. Once, I got a little unruly in my teenage years and the principal at Horace Maynard High, Mr. Claude Weaver, gave me a three day suspension from school. I remember my dad, using his good wisdom, handed me a mattock and said, “Son if you are not going to school you can go up on the hill and dig up those locust bushes that need to be cleared.” The work was not an abusive chore but it sure made me want to get back in school. Children need to be disciplined and this little bit of punishment was the proper way to do it. I’m glad my dad had such great wisdom and loved me with that unconditional love that shaped my life. I still miss him today. He was not a very tall man, but his spirit and integrity made me look at him as though he was ten feet tall.

Our good teachers taught us necessary social skills such as being polite and many other things. I think my mother may have taught me to count money. Parents need to be involved in their children's education, as well as, being involved in every day events.

By looking at our past, our successes and failures, we have the opportunity to prevent the same mistakes from being made in our future. Actually, some of the things we have considered to be successful are no doubt causing many failures. Taking a new approach toward some of the things we do will lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle. I don’t mean going back to horse and buggies, but knowing many things in our past can lead to a safer, more productive and better future.