History Lesson

Today I planned on having a normal lesson with my 6th grade class. We picked up where we left off last week with discussing the Colonial era right before the Revolutionary War. We read that the country was beginning to have a lot of immigrants moving to the colonies, with this many different cultures, beliefs and ethnicities were beginning to form the society of the pre-United States. As we read along we began reading a section called The Great Awakening. It discussed how a younger generation began turning their back on God. Society became corrupt with drinking, stealing, murder and adultery. These types of behavior were becoming the social norms and there was no accountability peace instilled. If you do your research about the founding of the United States you would know that this country was founded by Puritans.

Puritans were Englishman and women who wanted to practice their religious freedom without having to submit to the British Kingdom. Our country was founded on people who wanted to have the liberty to worship Jesus without restriction according to the Bible. What people don't know is that these people had to fight to come to the U.S. These Puritans were put in prison for attempting to practice their faith outside of British rule. They escaped and left for the Netherlands, separating themselves from their families only to reunite in the Netherlands where they would print English Bibles for the next decade. The British eventually figured this out and found the Puritans and destroyed their printing press and all the Bibles they had printed. These Puritans then escaped and headed for new land. This was not an easy journey folks, a few days after departure they had a ship begin to leak, they turned around, joined the other ship and decided to continue pressing forward toward the new country. I don't know about you but I might have given up at this point.

Once they got to their new destination (Plymoth Rock) they formed their own society. Once again this was not easy. When they arrived the men slept in the woods of the new land, trying to build cabins and structures for their family to live in while the women and children lived on the ship, you may have heard of it, the Mayflower. During the first winter there half the people died due to illness, frostbite and hunger. They could have chosen to turn back but they did not. They decided they would rather die being free to worship Jesus then go back to the "religion" in Britain. See these were the principals our country was founded on, not what we think it is like today. Freedom of speech and freedom to express your religion is a right but we have built a society that believes in accepting anything the human mind can come up with. Well during this colonial time period it was not acceptable. They needed a great awakening. As I showed my 6th grade students a video on The Great Awakening it hit me how similar I feel about our country today.

I asked the students after the video "who here is afraid of your neighborhood." The hands shot up. Tell me why. A little girl proclaimed "a man left a black scuff mark on our door because he was drunk and trying to kick in our door to steal things." Another girl chimed in "last week someone got stabbed 20 times in the face across from my drive way." Does it sound like we need a revival people? Can you hear the next generation crying out for help. A young lad in the front row raised his hand "what do we do to change this?" I started by telling him "it begins with following rules, listening to your teacher when they ask you to tuck in your shirt, with treating people the way you want to be treated. But it goes much deeper ladies and gents." at this point I turned in to Mr. Preacher "we need to proclaim our faith, the same principals these men and women were fighting for during The Great Awakening." They asked how so I gave them a short example "well guys let me tell you how I do my part to take back our nation, on Friday nights I got to bars from midnight to 2:30am" All the students began looking at each other in confusion. I went on "I go there and pass out coffee, water, and to offer hope. A hope that cannot be filled with society norms, possessions or worldly things." I smiled and continued "I go there and pray for people, I tell them about a God who loves them unconditionally and you would not believe the stories I have witnessed by doing so. I have seen drug addicts put down the needle, alcoholics turn to God for strength, broken homes be united. God is a powerful entity that we need to turn to if we want to take back our country."

The classroom grew silent. "So please children do your part, know that you are the next generation of hope. How you treat each other from class to class, how you treat your family and teachers, that is how you need to change this nation. It starts with yourself then it flows onto other people."

Help me make people more aware of what is going on in our country by clicking "Like" or sharing on Facebook. We have to fight for our country and the only way to do this is to rely on something bigger than ourselves. Our country needs God more now than ever and it starts with you. The body of Christ, the people who are living out the mission he left us, to share the Gospel, love thy neighbor and continue to pray for our leaders that have been put in place by God to run this amazing county.

Please comment below or email me at Zachary.Tyler.White@gmail.com if you have any prayer concerns or need to contact me. Thank you and God Bless America!