Changing America

The new election cycle is almost upon us and we are going to be hammered with political commercials and debates.  The next new president will be able to fix America!  He will provide jobs, fix our failing schools, and put families back together...

Not so...I have come to the conclusion that our hope is not in any political system.  It is in God and God alone.  The last command Jesus gave before leaving this earth was Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations...and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  Matthew 28:19.20

We had a preacher from South Africa teach last week at church.  He spoke on this subject.  He said families are crumbling.  They are the bedrock of any society.   He challenged us to make it our goal to follow Jesus and make disciples.

He gave one illustration of something that has been very successful in one community of over 45,000 people.  Every couple that is engaged must be mentored for two years before marriage...once a week.  After they are married, they must be mentored for the first six years of marriage. 

Each week they are asked how they spent their money, if they were moderate in their eating, if they argued with each other, how well their children are being trained, ....everything that pertains to every day living.  He then went on to say that the divorce rate among those mentored couples is .01%. 

Ken and I spent three hours with a couple the other day teaching them how to get along and to stop arguing.  We gave them suggestions on how to change the interaction they had between each other. 

We gave them a game to play...Every time they started arguing, they had to yell out "One" for the first fight, "Two" for the second one, etc.  Then they had to write down what they were arguing about and report back to us.  Do you think this is going to keep them much more aware of how they are treating each other?

We all need accountability!  We all need training.  Teenage girls should be training elementary school girls.  College girls need to be training high school girls.  Mothers need to be training their children.  Grandmothers need to be training mothers.

From my own personal experience, mentoring works!  Marriages are healed, they start eating better, they start walking with Jesus more closely, and life just gets better for them.  Jesus didn't suggest we make disciples, He commanded it!

So I encourage you to start making disciples. 

This nation needs it. 

Families need it. 

Marriages need it. 

This is how we change America.

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. 

2 Timothy 2:2

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom;  that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 
Colossians 1:28

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;  teaching and admonishing one another. 
Colossians 3:16a