I grew up going to a small town school in southwest Arkansas where we had the freedom of being able to pray. We prayed at almost all the sporting events and as a team we prayed before and after the games. We had "see you at the pole" meetings and had a good FCA club despite the size of the school. I loved the way I was raised and taught to believe. But it just seems that today, saying a prayer in school or at a public school function is just like selling illegal drugs. They have to hide it and they can't tell anyone what they were doing or where they got it from. Case in point, a couple weeks ago in a small Florida town, two school officials are facing jail time for saying a prayer at a school related function and violating the school districts from promoting religion. It is a sad, sad, world we live in where we have lost the right to share our beliefs and from being able to pray over those in need. We always say that we are grateful to live in a country where we have the freedom to express our religious views, but do we really? I grew up knowing that I was safe in my public school for saying prayers and singing worship music. But I don't think that my future kids will ever get the privilege of knowing and feeling that. No wonder the home schooling rates have gone up every year, it seems like one of the only places where they are safe, besides church, to pray and worship Jesus. I don't know about you, but I commend these two school officials to sticking to their beliefs and for becoming, in my opinion, modern day martyrs. I admire the courage and the strength that they had, knowing that they would get in trouble, but there are some things that need to be more important to us. I know that they could have kept quiet and kept their prayers to themselves, but is that what we were called to do? To keep Jesus all to ourselves. If we don't want our kids going to jail, it seems that they do.
