In my book, “More Than I Could Ever Ask”, I tell all the details about my first husband whom I chose for all the wrong reasons, none of which had anything to do with God.  When I met him, I was very young and naive and my ability to make good decisions was not yet mature.  Add to that the influence of drugs and you have a recipe for disaster and that is what happened.  The choices I made as a young woman led to 10 years of hell and heartache.

Remember the old Frank Sinatra song “I Did It My Way”?  It sounded really great to the generation that was being raised to indulge in the world and all of its pleasure.  We heard things like “go for the gusto” and “you only live once” and we bought it.  We bought the lie that we had a right to sinful lusts and worldly living that the Bible says brings pleasure for a season, but eventually brings death.  We bought the world’s philosophy of “self fulfillment”.

Remember the rock song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”?  Boy, did we ever go after self-satisfaction!  When “self” rules in the heart, you will see everything that really means anything turned exactly upside down.  You will see the principles of the Bible destroyed and you will believe that destruction of Christian values is a “good thing” as you enjoy the temporary self-satisfaction.  We exchange the truth for a lie and call good evil, and evil good.

In the fifties, sixties and seventies, the world had begun to turn the Christian values of generations past into a lie, permeating every part of the family and God’s design for the family.  Everything in the world, all of its pleasures and all of its temporal thinking, values, and all of its best efforts to put life into order and to meet the needs and wants of mankind, has only perverted real truth and sent a tidal wave of disastrous proportions throughout our families.

I have often asked why the generation before me did not stand up for what was right.  I’ve wondered why the Christians and religious leaders sat by while prayer was taken out of schools and abortion was legalized and divorce was normalized – and did very little to stop the insanity.  As I look back, I’m almost angry.  But I now understand that each generation bears the responsibility for either honoring God or turning further from Him, and my generation doesn’t get a pass either.

Many times, out of the carnage of lives lived in pursuit of “self”, the eventual pain led us to search for something, anything, that could help!  But we went to the world for answers.   We read “self-help” and “psychology” books written by those who have a measure of understanding – as much as can be understood without spiritual revelation.  We watched television get crazier every day and we pulled our values from writers who do not know God – therefore, every thought is corrupt and gets worse continually.

I now understand that it was the mercy of God, and the prayers of those who went before us in our families, in our churches, in our messed up world, that showed us the way back to Him.

You see, there is no life apart from God.  There is no true fulfillment in relationships without His guidance and direction.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.