Dear Anna:

Congratulations on your graduation from high school! It is a task you have done well. True education, i.e. education that is Christian, is very important because everything you do not know, the Devil can use against you.

From the day you were born, you have brought a particular joy to your parents. It is a great blessing when a man’s sons walk with the Lord, but a daughter who seeks to walk with the Lord brings a joy altogether different.

Your mother and I have named all our children after godly Christians whose first name was a Bible name. We named you Anna ("Gracious One") Judson after the devoted wife of Adoniram Judson, the renowned missionary to Burma. You are related to him through your paternal grandmother.

Within the next few years, you will want to establish a home of your own. Beware: many young ladies fall head over heels for the first young man who gives them his attention. This is the way to a life of sorrow, unhappiness and grief.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," said the Apostle (II Cor. 6:14). It is not enough that a prospective husband be a true Christian: he must also be devout worshipper of the Lord. The man who does not live a life of prayer, does not know from where his usefulness comes. And, you should also take care not to be unequally yoked to a man of corrupt doctrine. A prospective husband should also accept the doctrines of grace because you accept them to be the essence of the gospel.

In order to be a good wife, you must be discreet (wise, prudent), chaste, and a keeper at home, not gadding about bearing gossip. You must love your husband enough to submit to his God-given authority. You must obey him, and love your children. You must be good (Tit. 2:4,5).

Your children will grow up and curse you unless you teach them and discipline them in the ways of the Lord. Teach them early to pray, and that it is the will of God that they obey you (Eph. 6:1). Let your generation know the ways of the Lord, Remember the old adage, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Make your marriage a matter of much prayer. Your decision will help or hinder you on your way to Heaven. Therefore, seek God’s will in the matter. It will affect your children, your grandchildren, you great-grandchildren, etc. until the end of time.

May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you, and give you the kiss of peace.

Your Father and Mother

Sometimes we hear that a certain beer                                Has made Milwaukee famous;                                           But when the truth is known,                                          By the facts we’re shown,                                            And conditions all around us;                                         We soon find out                                                     And I want' a tell it about,                                  Milwaukee’s not the only place:                                     Beer is famous through the whole wide world,                         For cursing the human race.

Beer is famous for producing sin                                      In lives of those who are swept in;                               Famous to ruin and wreck the life                                     Of little children, husband and wife;                              Famous to make little children thin,                                 And to make old bums out of gentlemen.                              When they said, "Famous," they said it right,                       It’s famous to have a serpent’s bite.

Famous for breaking up many homes,                                Leaving a mother and her children alone;                            Beer is famous for causing fires;                                  Famous for producing cursing liars;                               Famous to cause a man to steal,                                       To fight and cut and shoot and kill;                                When they said, "Famous," they got it right,                         It’s famous to have a serpent’s bite.

Famous to cause automobile wrecks                                   With bleeding bodies and broken necks,                                As drunken men down the highway fly                                  And cause the innocent to suffer and die;                          Famous for robbing a girl’s good name                                 As she sells her body to live in shame;                              When they said, "Famous," they said it right,                        It’s famous to have a serpent’s bite.     

Famous for changing a grocery man’s work                             From a decent job to beer sales clerk,                           Changing a restaurant that had respect                                To a vile beer tavern to ruin and wreck;                         Changing a home that was nice and neat                                To the shabbiest, unkept house on the street,                       When they said, "Famous," they got it right,                        It’s famous to have a serpent’s bite.

Beer causes lust, adultery and rape;                                  Is famous for men losing jobs and pay;                                  Famous for children in want and in need                               No bread for their mouth, No shoes for their feet;                    Famous for filling the prisons and jails,                            And sending the souls of thousands to Hell;                         When they said, "Famous," they said it right,                         It’s famous to have a serpent’s bite.

-(Written by Evangelist Harold S. Leake; used with permission)

1.) "Oh, the goodness and severity of God who designed life, so that even a poor man may be a happy man; and the ignorant man may know more truth than many who are intellectually brilliant."

2.) "The moment a person can tolerate homosexuality, he (or she) has become one."

What is it that young people lack? What is it they desire? and, What is it they must have? What do they require?

The days of youth are days of mental, physical and spiritual struggle. The minds of teenagers are struggling with values: what is real value? and, What things are of greater importance? Without a foundation of Biblical truth, young people will serve their own interests, and will follow the lust of the flesh which is made so appealing by contemporary culture. The result will be that they will never learn to possess their vessel, i.e. their body, in sanctification and honor (I Thess. 4:4).

Young people must be taught the doctrines of God’s Word, and be encouraged to war a good warfare bringing their body into subjection to the will of God. Without a firm Biblical foundation, youth are sure to follow the lust of the eyes with its baubles and glitter of dress, and will certainly fall into the quagmire of materialism. Doctrine will reveal what things are truly valuable, and Discipline will build their character as they deny themselves those things which may for the moment bring pleasure.

A firm foundation of Bible teaching will build a defense against the pride of life which young people express by their craving to be popular. Girls express such pride to the degree that crave to be beautiful, while boys often express it by their strength, or athletic prowess.

Young people need to learn how to possess their vessel physically, mentally, and spiritually because they are beginning to take charge of their life. As doctrine and discipline are indispensable in building up our children, and bringing them to the Lord, so, in youth, they are indispensable if we would bring them up in such a way that when they are old they will not depart from the ways of the Lord. Youth require teaching and training. They must have doctrine and discipline.

Young people have an inward craving for adults to guide them in the way they should go. This is not to say they are innately good, or that they possess a spark of divinity. It is a testimony, however, that is often heard from the lips of condemned men, and is witnessed by the temper tantrums of children, whether young or old.

Whether young people recognize it or not, they have an inward craving for something different, and for someone not like themselves. How utterly foolish are modern evangelists who think they have to win the right to give youth a smidgen of truth! How profoundly absurd do youth workers appear to youth when they think they must be gross, vulgar, slap-stick, and "get down to their level." Young people do not want someone like themselves. If God is at work in their hearts, they are looking for answers, for something different. What a pity it must be that Jesus did not know about such brilliant (foolhardy) means of evangelism!

Young people want adults to guide them in the way they should go --not in the way they are going! Such youth leaders give an uncertain sound! and, young people do not need them. If the laxity of piety in youth is any indication, young people do not desire the would-be message of such foolish youth workers.

Young people need the influence of sober and pious adults. It is positively destructive for adults to play with the emotions of young people. They do not need "pals:" they need godly examples.

Young people can be "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might" like Joseph, who, when he was himself a youth, was under the continual seduction of an evil woman. Yet, when she would bring her Conniving to fruition, Joseph asked, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God" (Gen. 39:9)? And, Isaac, too, was known in Scripture to have been a pious, meditative youth (Gen. 24:63).

Young people do not need adults to act as they do, by getting down to their level. They need to be lifted up to gospel standards --and, this is what most young people in our generation lack!