It hasn’t been that long ago that families gathered around the dinner table together.
Some still do, but in today’s busy world, that scene is little more than a memory for most families. Faith, Family and Freedom have become, in some measure little more than slogans for organizations and political campaigns.
Busy schedules that require Mom and Dad to both work out of the home, sometimes at multiple jobs, have made it more difficult to connect every evening around the dinner table. Ronald Reagan understood the powerful importance of families gathering together. In his farewell address in 1989, he said, “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” His observation was certainly true… for better or worse.
If we look back in time and see families gathering at the dinner table, praying a blessing over their food and discussing the issues of the day, we may begin to see the connection to freedom. It seems the more we have drifted away from this family connection, the more our freedoms have slipped away.
Great leaders of the past have called us to prayer. In 1863, the Senate requested that President Lincoln declare a national day of fasting and prayer. He signed it on March 30, 1863. In 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry called for three days of prayer for rain. South Dakota Governor George Michelson called his state to prayer for rain in a time of drought.
America has now twice-elected a President who openly declared we are no longer a Christian nation. It is sad to consider that he could be right. At the very least, it seems fair to say we have moved away from the traditional picture of Faith, Family and Freedom. While all great change may begin at the dinner table, the decline of freedom seems to follow the decline of families gathering in faith around that table.
I am personally convinced that Americans are still a people with a strong faith in God. We have just become distracted and preoccupied with the growing difficulties of economic survival. Growing government means higher taxes. More government spending means more debt. Increased government control and regulation puts more pressure on families. Declining value of the dollar makes it more difficult to put food on the dinner table. Powerful media and entertainment influences quickly fill the space left open by the empty chairs around the table, to lead families in a direction AWAY from Faith, Family and Freedom.
America needs to return to the time when leaders were not afraid to pray, and call their fellow countrymen to join them on their knees.
Our nation is in serious trouble. We need leaders who will call us back to Faith, Family and Freedom.
***Gordon Howie is an author, host of Liberty Today TV and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***
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