“Grandpa, Tell Me About the Good Old Days”
Do you remember the song Grandpa, sung by the famous country music artists, The Judd’s?
Some of the words go like this:
Tell me 'bout the good ole days/ Sometimes it feels like/ This world's gone crazy./ Grandpa, take me back to yesterday/ Where the line between right and wrong/ Didn't seem so hazy.
Did lovers really fall in love to stay?/ Stand beside each other come what may/Was a promise really something people kept/ Not just something they would say?/ Did families really bow their heads to pray?/ Did daddies really never go away?/ Whoa oh Grandpa/ Tell me 'bout the good ole days.
Grandpa/ Everything is changing fast./ We call it progress,/But I just don't know./ And Grandpa, let's wander back into the past,/ And paint me a picture of long ago.
Did you notice the line, “Where the line between right and wrong didn't seem so hazy”?
Do you ever ask yourself what happened to the good old days? While flipping the TV channels, I ran across a sitcom with two lesbians as major characters. It was at that moment that I reflected back on what I felt were the “good ole days.” Remember the family shows such as “The Andy Griffith Show”?
Again I ask, what happened to the world I grew up in; the world where there were family sitcoms with a traditional family? What happened to the world where Christian values were the norm? Schools and government building openly posted the Ten Commandments. Now, the Ten Commandments are ordered to be removed by atheists fighting to get God out of the schools and government buildings.
What used to be a taboo to talk about in the “good ole days” is now openly flaunted and worn as a badge of courage! People who oppose these lifestyles because of religious convictions can easily find themselves in a lawsuit or their business closed, or even fired from their job. Everyone has rights and a voice; everything is tolerated, it seems, except the Christian conservative values.
Here’s what has happened to the world I grew up in: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power” (Timothy 3:2, emphasis added). Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Thankfully, there is hope, hope of a new world coming! A world even better than the world I remember in the “good ole days.” We are to watch, be vigilant in our obedience to God, and not be swept into this declining world. Be a light, a shining example of how God’s way works to your neighbors. Perhaps we can help influence people for the better. And we can take comfort that God will intervene and restore His laws on society, which will produce total peace and happiness for eternity.
Course Content
Janet Treadway
Janet Treadway was born in Washington, D.C., but was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. She started attending the Church of God with her mother at the age of 14 along with her twin brother, Jim.
She was baptized at the age of 19 in 1974. She has been involved in various activities, such as serving as the managing editor of UCG’s first teen magazine UsTeens, which was distributed worldwide and published in English and Spanish.
Janet’s first love is writing. She has contributed many articles in various publications such as Vertical Thought, Virtual Christian Magazine, United News and others. Her article “Take Action, Your Life May Depend on It” is also featured in the reprint “The Cycle of Abuse.” Janet draws from her own life’s experiences and challenges when she writes and is motivated to give readers hope that God will see them through anything.
Janet has worked in the home office of the United Church of God since 1998. She is married to Charles Treadway and has four children, David, Michelle, Michael and Josh, as well as six grandchildren and two granddogs, Jo Jo and Vinny.
