Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Psalms 144:15, NKJV

When I was ten, we lived on the edge of a forest in Kirkland, Washington, a few miles outside of Seattle. Everyone says that it always rains in Seattle, but that's not the way I remember it at all. Sure, there was a special cloak room at school where we hung our yellow raincoats and set our galoshes (rainboots), but I still remember going outside for recess just about every day. Maybe it's because we had library time on the really rainy days, or maybe it's because I always had an indoor "plan B" for when I was at home, but I honestly don't remember the rain ever slowing me down much.

What I do remember is summertime! A combination of having a sick sister (she did get better and is living a normal life - if you can call my sister normal) who required most of Mom's attention, and growing up in a relatively safe era, gave me the freedom that kids today can only dream about. When I wasn't playing in the woods, I was off on my bike for an adventure as far away from home as possible. My allowance was a quarter, and in the late 60's that was a lot of money. After the first nickel that was set aside for the collection plate at church, I was left with two lovely dimes that would buy a couple of candy bars, an ice-cold Coca-Cola or two packs of baseball cards if it was baseball season.

Barring a deep woods adventure or shopping spree, you could usually find me with my baseball mitt slung over the handlebars of my bike in search of the nearest game. Back then kids rarely played inside during the summer, so there were lots of kids out on the streets and yards of the neighborhood and you didn't have to look very far for action!

And Saturdays? Well, they were fantastic at any season, for that was the day my parents slept in, and we got up without having to be told to. The reason, of course, was that Saturday morning in 1970 provided the best cultural experience known to kids - cartoons! Add that to the fact that mom would buy us Poptarts for breakfast and the fixins for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Nestle's chocolate milk for lunch (Saturday was her day off) and you had the ingredients for the perfect day.

I feel a bit sorry for kids today. They are "cursed" with cellphones at the earliest of ages. They have the blight of satellite TV, computers and video games, and are shackled by unsafe neighborhoods (or well-intentioned adults who think that there might be some danger lurking just outside their front doors) and, sadly, they are all too often right about those dangers. The result has been a loss of freedom from their inhouse confinement, and a loss of creativity from their electronic devices that I am convinced are designed in part to keep them fat, dumbed-down and unhappy. 

Perhaps I am being a little too harsh on the downside of our modern-day utopia, but I don't think I am. I for one am glad that I grew up in the Halcyon days of my era. I was happy then, and I have to confess that I am happy now, despite all of the handicaps that come hand in hand with modernity. I imagine my parents could have felt the same sense of sorrow for my generation, but knowing what I do about their childhood in the depression and WWII era, I kind of doubt it. 

One of the reasons that I write these daily articles is that I have come to the unshakable conclusion that when we are living according to God's direction that we have a good life... and I don't see that good life that I remember in today's era. That's the bad news, but the good news is that we can return to those simpler and safer times if we will simply return to the principles that helped bring them about in the first place. The reason that my era was seemingly "charmed" was because America was a more godly nation. This is not mere speculation, as the polls clearly reveal that fewer and fewer people attend worship each week, fewer and fewer schools acknowledge God and include His Word in their curriculum (you have to pay extra at a private school for that) and fewer and fewer people actually profess a belief that God is God and that Jesus is His Son.

And that's why I keep on writing these articles encouraging people to get back to godly principles. I know from living in two America's (the one I grew up in, and the poor substitute of the one I am living in now) that God's way is the best way. I think people are distracted by all of the "noise" that comes along with our modern world, so I know that it is good to just sit down in a quiet spot and think about how we can make things better. It begins with returning God to His rightful position - as Lord of our lives - and it ends with our living as if He were in charge - because, of course, He really is whether we acknowledge that fact or not.

Perhaps more than anything, this good life comes complete with the offer of eternal life, with God, in Heaven! And regardless of whether or not the world can see it in time to correct its reckless path to destruction, each one of us can reclaim the days of paradise that we have lost because that is what heaven is all about. And for those who can see it, God promises happiness! The question is, can we see it?