Matthew 6:9-13
9 – After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 – Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 – Give us this day our daily bread.
12 – And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 – And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
When I was in elementary school back in the late 1960′s, each and every morning our teacher would lead us in reciting two of the most important and memorable recitations I know of: the Pledge to the Flag and The Lord’s Prayer. Back then our nation’s schools taught us kids a lot more than just the three R’s. They also taught us why we should love our country and how to demonstrate our love and allegiance to it. They taught us how to be patriots.
What’s more, they taught us the importance of getting along with one another while respecting and honoring our Creator. Unlike the liberals would have us believe, we weren’t force-fed a steady diet of “religious propaganda” in the classroom. We were simply taught that there is a God up in Heaven – the Creator of all things – and that we should take a few moments out of each day to ask Him for the things we need and to thank Him for the many blessings that He has given us. The recitation of the Lord’s Prayer took just a few seconds at the beginning of each day, then the rest of the day was spent learning about our nation’s rich history along with the fundamentals of math, science, and English.
As any honest person who is old enough to remember the 60′s and 70′s will tell you, most of the serious problems that dog our nation today began to grow and fester soon after the ban on prayer in school was put in place. The only moral guidance many of our nation’s youngsters ever received came from their teachers, and when the teachers were told they could no longer provide it, it left a huge void in our society that grows larger and larger with each passing day. Nowadays, instead of starting the school day by reciting The Lord’s Prayer, many kids are starting it with bloodshot eyes or guns in their pockets.
Despite what the liberals say, the correlation between the ban on school prayer and the rise of crime and violence in our nation is both very real and very easy to see when looking back at recent history through unbiased eyes. When it comes to the levels of patriotism and morality in the United States of America, there really was a period we can accurately describe as “the good old days”, and unfortunately I’m afraid they are gone forever.