March winds are definitely in the air.  The trees are blowing, and the flags are waving.  It is nice to walk around the block and feel the air blowing through my hair.  It is relaxing to drive down a country road and see the plowed fields and the seemingly slow pace of the country.  When we take a drive, we can forget for a minute the troubles of this world.

My husband and I sometimes watch the show “Mountain Men.”  There is a bit of an allure to the show.  No, I don’t think I would like to live where the temperatures can dip below zero and where I have to worry about predators coming onto my property.  It is amazing how these men and women make their own way with the things on the land. They build their own houses, and they trade with their neighbors to get things they need.  These people work hard from sun up to sundown.  They help each other when someone needs a hand.  Their homes are miles from the nearest store or restaurant.  These families are happy living off of the land and not having the luxuries that most of us hold dear.

The allure for me is the way they seem to escape the evils of this world.  Oh, they have to worry about the animals eating their livestock and the natural pests out there.  I am sure that they are concerned about some politics because it could threaten their way of life.  Their children are homeschooled or go to school with a group that lives in the mountains.  They don’t have to worry about what their children might hear at school or see on television.  Can you imagine how much easier it would be to parent without internet access?  Their children help with the chores and learn how to live off of the land.  No one seems to be concerned about COVID either.  It is like traveling back in time.

Many sinful things have existed throughout the ages.  In the book of Genesis, Lot lived in the sin-sick city of Sodom.  In Matthew 2, Herod killed the children below the age of two in order to try to eliminate the Savior.  We have experienced the many dark times.  Among them were World War I and World War II when Hitler tried to destroy all of the Jews.  Our current holocaust is on the unborn.  If we look throughout history, we can see travesty after travesty.  During no time in history has sin seemed so rampant as it is today.

There is no shame in our world today.  The things we see on television are sickening.  Need I list all of the sins that are shown as commonplace?  When I was a child, Lucy and Ricky, from “I Love Lucy,” could not sleep in the same bed on TV.  I remember the first time that I heard a cuss word on TV.  My Dad switched the channel.  I am over sixty years old now, so tell me how far we have fallen in fifty years.  The pendulum keeps swinging and swinging to greater depravity.  Now, look at what we accept on TV and the internet.   No one seems to bat an eye at a cuss word on television or leud scenes on the screen.  The songs that people listen to are filled with sexual innuendos and violence.

I think about our politics and our country.  I feel that our founding fathers would be so disappointed in us.  They gave up everything for our freedom.  Why don’t we stand and try to make a difference?  I know that some of us do, but if we all stood, perhaps things would change.  I am concerned about the world my grandchildren will be a part of.  I don’t know how to fix it.

Are you depressed yet?  If I let myself, I can become very down and discouraged.  How do we make our world a better place?  What can we do?  Well, I know that it is not going to straighten up.  Everything is crooked.  But perhaps, we can help knock out some of the curves in the sticks and bend our society back in the right direction.

Our Lord went through many struggles and hardships for us.  He suffered on a cruel cross so that we could go to Heaven.  Jesus preached to the multitudes, but He also preached to the individual.  He reached out to Mary Magdalene and the blind man.  He stretched out His hand to the lame man and told him to rise and walk.

We have to reach out to each person that we can.  We need to minister to the hurting and the lost.  There was a slogan a long time back, “Each one reach one.”  If each Christian will reach one lost person, we will be able to reach the world one person at a time.

We are too busy complaining about our circumstances and problems.  We don’t even see the hurting when we walk by. Perhaps we have a friend that is crying out for our help.  Perhaps our little ones we are worried about will grow up to be great missionaries one day, either at home or abroad.  Every Christian should be a missionary.  We should be looking around us to see who God would have us love for Him today.

Paul said in II Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

I so want the Lord to say of me one day, she fought a good fight, she served Me until the end, and I am proud of her.  There is nothing more important in a Christian’s life than pleasing our Lord.  Christians through the ages have had battles to face.  In our generation, we have great battles to fight.  The way to make our Lord proud is to face those battles head-on and keep the faith.

Yes, when we look around our world can be discouraging.  But we must be sure we are looking up. The answers are always with the Father.  Lift up your heads Redemption draweth nigh!

Mrs. Worthington has five children and twelve grandchildren.  She serves as Principal of Pathway Christian Academy in Goldsboro.