Ladies and gentlemen, Gary most definitely did NOT say the following:
Second he makes the broad generalization that parents who don't spend
> every spare moment with their children are then to blame when those kids
> get into trouble.
What he meant (I think) was the raising of one's children is more important
than one's own SELFISH desires. Gary was just reminding us all to be sure
to choose the right thing. When you do that, you're automatically right
with God (without getting into issues of grace and all that. I'm just a
layman.)
Briana LeClaire
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> I have to take issue with several of Gary You's assumptions in the
> discussion of our area's 'troubled teenagers'.
> First, he suggests that they are all from "broken homes". There are
> many
> great teens whose parents are divorced- and many problem kids from homes
> where the parents haven't divorced.
> Second he makes the broad generalization that parents who don't spend
> every spare moment with their children are then to blame when those kids
> get into trouble. Does that go for the father busy spending his spare
> time finishing a graduate degree? Attending city council meetings?
> Running for county commissioner? The mother attending medical school,
> running for mayor or organizing youth outreach programs? Maybe it
> applies to parents so busy taking Johnny to basketball practice or
> football games that no one is home cooking supper for Johnny's brothers
> and sisters (who then get into trouble due to this parental neglect).
> Finally he makes the statement that the "easy" solution is to "get right
> with God". Living a religious life is not easy- and not intended to be
> easy. It's a lifelong struggle, always falling short (unless you happen
> to be a Saint). Similarly, it's not an easy solution to a communities'
> problems. There are no easy solutions. But there are a lot of difficult
> and time consuming solutions that we'll never get to if we sit around
> waiting for Utopia/Heaven, mouthing pat phrases.
> Jo Williams tajs@potlatch.com
>