The Circle of Sin must somehow be broken, but how? Too many children are being raised without being taught right from wrong. It would be an awakening that their own parents were sinners so the parents turn their backs as the younger generation skips boldly from bed to bed.

How sad! The circle began long ago and it just keeps continuing. The moral breakdown in our society within my lifetime began somewhere in the seventies. It is easy to look at others who are doing wrong and judge, but beware, another time another place it may be you or your child or your grandchildren.

I recall a time when a woman in our neighborhood became a divorcee. She was the first in our community and around my age to become a single mom trying to raise her children alone. Next we started noticing she was dating and then there came the morning we saw a strange car parked in front of her house. In the late 60s and early 70s this was unheard of. We could not believe our friend and neighbor would do such an immoral thing. We stopped speaking to her. After all, she was a terrible person, right?

A few years passed and there were more divorces and suddenly it wasn’t such a shock when we saw a boyfriend or girlfriend spending the night together, with the children right down the hall. In some cases it was our boyfriends or girlfriends whose car was in our driveway. The next morning the children didn’t think it was out of the ordinary for mom’s boyfriend to be sitting at the breakfast table.

A few more years passed and the children began spending the night with their boyfriend or girlfriend and then moving in together to “try it out”. After all they wouldn’t even consider getting married first and taking the chance on getting a divorce somewhere down the road. There were no words from mom saying , “You must wait until you’re married to live together.” She would have been forced to admit that she had been walking in sin all those years. In fact, the word sin was gradually disappearing from the vocabulary of a large percentage of families.

Recently, a sixty-something Christian mom was talking to her forty-something year old daughter. Her grandson was in the midst of a divorce and she was concerned about his two-year-old son. She asked her daughter if there was any chance that a clause could be included in the divorce agreement that would keep the mother of the baby from being able to move a boyfriend in without being married.

Her daughter replied, “Oh no Mom, that wouldn’t be fair. She might meet someone she really cares about and want to have him move in.” She didn’t say it but could have: “Mom, you and I both lived with some of our boyfriends before we married them, how can we expect anything different from my kids”.

What has to happen to turn this circle into a straight line again? Where does it end? These generations of children are being raised with no idea that it is a sin to engage in sexual activity before marriage. After all, the parents can’t teach about sin without admitting that they lived in sin before they decided to be married.

When I announced to my family and friends a few years ago that I was going to be married again , a young girl who was twelve years old at the time, asked me, “When is he going to move in with you ? I replied, “After we are married” and she said, “Why doesn’t he just go ahead and move in now?”

My generation was not perfect. We were not without sin, but we knew when we sinned that it was not ok. Our parents raised us with a Bible in one hand and love in the other. We knew, therefor, we could repent and ask Jesus to forgive us so that we could be saved. So many of this generation is not being taught that there is a right way and a wrong way. How will they even have a chance to know our heavenly father as their personal savior?

I weep when I realize it was my generation that turned the straight line into an endless circle that just keeps turning and turning away from righteousness. Heavenly Father please forgive us, we really didn’t know what we were doing !!!