God helps those who help themselves

By: American Decency Staff

By Chris Johnson When I was in first grade I was given the distinct honor of playing the role of Benjamin Franklin in our end-of-the-year program. I donned a tri-cornered hat, buckled shoes, and tights and recited quotes from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. Obviously, wearing tights on stage in front of the whole school and their families is something that sticks with a 6 year old. It is with that experience that I credit the fact that some thing Franklin wrote in the almanac stuck with me: God helps those who help themselves. That little proverb, I think, has been very misunderstood. For one thing, a bunch of people think it’s in the Bible. It’s not.Also, I think a lot of people hear that saying and interpret it as God­ only helps those who help themselves. I don’t think that’s right. I think what Franklin was trying to say was don’t expect God to help you if you’re too lazy to do the work. Here’s my paraphrase: do your best and let God do the rest. I think that saying sums up the spirit of our Founding Fathers better than any other. Faith, Family, and Freedom have been called the pillars on which American society rests. But if these are the pillars, hard work and dedication is the concrete of which they are made. When the integrity of any of the supports is weakened, our nation, founded on the precepts of the Bible, starts to slouch towards ruin. Today all three are crumbling. The time of our founding was a golden age for American values.  Children were raised to be patriots and Christians. Government schools taught reading with Bible stories and had no qualms about instilling Biblical Christian values. Pastors preached sermons about inalienable rights. Citizens were well informed, hardworking, and with a common set of morals: the Bible. To put it simply, this country was not built on the bent backs of people serving their government, but on the bent knees of a people serving their God. When Americans did the best they could with the words “give us this day our daily breadâ€Â on their lips, that is when this nation thrived. And that is when this nation will thrive again. I think most of you agree that our country is in pretty rough shape. The three pillars that have held up this country all need a lot of attention. The church more than anything has been desecrated, bent, and misshapen into something it was never meant to be. Can you imagine the impact if every church in America were to effectively train and send into the community a congregation of Godly Christian patriots? Going back to the founding principles will require just as much hard work and just as many miracles as it did in 1776. Ten years from now, high school kids will be flipping through their text books looking at pictures of gay Californians celebrating Judge Walker’s decision, illegal immigrants protesting Arizona’s law, President Obama signing the health care bill, Obama giving the order to allow embryonic stem cell research, who knows what else will happen in the next few years. It is up to us to decide what those history books are going to say ten years from now. Will those kids read about the fall of the social conservative movement? Will they read about the violent, bigoted tea partiers who tried to stop sick people from getting health care? Will they read about Christians harassing Muslims and trying to burn their Koran? Or will they read about the American people who stood up to their leaders and said this is wrong – change it back? ======================================================= American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 https://americandecency.org/ https://americandecency.org/archives/archives/> http://www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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