Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, and whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and energy, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for all the blessings that you bestow upon us that we don't tell you thank you for. Whether big or small. Healthy people in our lives. Good marriage. Kind children. Parents who love us. Water to drink. Clothes to wear. Food to eat. Electricity. Air conditioning and heaters. All the other things, Father. Thank you for those listening to the podcast. Please be with them, Father. Be with their families. Bless the marriages of those who are married. Guide those who have children and raising them to know you and your son Jesus Christ. Be with our leaders here in America and around the world where in places where people are listening. Tell them to rule in fear of you. Be with our pastors and our priests, be with their wives and their children. In your son's name we pray. Amen. How have you spent the last twenty-four hours? The last forty-eight hours. Last week, month, year. But really just think about your last day. Are you pleased with it? Are you pleased with how you're spending your time? What did you give your time to? God, spouse, children, parents, friends, sports, TV, social media, phone, workouts, hobbies. Do you think that those line up with God's priorities? If they do, then we're in pretty good shape. If they don't, we've got some problems. We have enough time each day, folks. It's just a matter of what we choose to give it to. And that does mean that sometimes you're gonna have to say no to certain things. Marriage verse for today or verses come from Titus. Chapter two, start with verse two. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, and love and perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise urge the young men to be sensible, and all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound and speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Our roles and responsibilities as men and women, as husbands and wives, aren't near as complicated as we try and pretend today in most of American society. Bible verses James chapter five verse one through twenty. Look here, you rich people, weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags. Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment. For listen, hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven's armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you. Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You too must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look, the judge is standing at the door. For examples of patience and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned. Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years. Then when he prayed again the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins. Psalm one nineteen verses one through sixteen. Joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths. You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees. Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands. As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should. I will obey your decrees. Please don't give up on me. How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. I have tried hard to find you. Don't let me wander from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I praise you, O Lord, teach me your decrees. I have recited aloud all the regulations you have given us. I have rejoiced in your laws as much as in riches. I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways, I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word. Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich. Young people who obey the law are wise. Those with wild friends bring shame to their parents. How many of us have put ourselves into the situations that we're in today? And yet we want to blame God for the problems that come on us, right? You're not talking about a kid that was born blind or lame or with some disease. How many of us were born perfectly healthy with good parents? A good family. And yet, somewhere along the way, we decided to ignore what God said and it got us into trouble. But now we're mad at God for where we are today. If it sounds like that's the voice of experience, folks, it is. And then if you go back and look at James, you look at verse 12. But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned. I'm going to throw my father-in-law under the bus. There's a lot of people that come to him and his particular line of work. And he told me a story years ago when he was first starting out, and he ended up getting some business that he didn't expect, and it was it was a pretty good bit of business. And years later, this man that had worked for him or with him for years came back to him and said, You know why I started working with you? And my father-in-law said, No, I don't, honestly. You know, I didn't have much experience. I wasn't well known. And the the gentleman told him, he said, because you did what you said you would do. And that's really rare. He said, if you told me something, I knew that it was going to happen. And I think a lot of us, we like to make this big show about, oh, we're we're you know, we're gonna do this or we're gonna do that, or we're so good at this or that. And if we would just simply say yes and mean it, and no and mean it and act on it, that would that would do a lot more for our reputation, for God. It would definitely show people that they could trust us more than anything we could say. Medal of Honor. Daniel Bishop, Indian campaign, sergeant, alpha company, fifth U.S. Cavalry, U.S. Army, March twenty fifth, eighteen seventy three, turret mountain, Arizona Territory, USA, gallantry and engagements. That's the whole citation. Gallantry and engagements. Wheeling, accredited to Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia, not awarded posthumously. Presented april twelfth, eighteen seventy five, born eighteen forty six, Monroe County, Ohio, United States, died May twenty third, eighteen ninety one, Bel Air, Ohio. Buried Greenwood Cemetery, BTAC twenty five, Bel Air, Ohio, United States. Daniel Bishop. Not a lot there, folks. But again, a name that we ought to remember quite a bit more. Exponentially more than we do pop stars or professional or college athletes and their statistics. So there's an article in the Epic Times that we're going to spend maybe a couple days on because it really hits on one of the core purposes of this podcast. And it's called The Hidden Crisis in Our Classrooms: Why Education Without Character is Failing America. And it's by the Complete Education Working Group at Fay Tan College Northern, which is located in Middleton, New York. College enrollment more than doubled between 1970 and 2010, but dropped by 15% between 2010-2021. I'm not sure that that's really a bad thing, folks, but it's an interesting statistic that we've lost people in the last 10 years. Yet as study after study has revealed, they're more anxious, more depressed, and more disconnected from meaningful purpose than ever before. It's the same thing with women when you look at a lot of the recent studies talking about how over the last 50 years, despite these supposed gains for women in society, they're more anxious, more depressed. And I talked to a high school counselor that worked for 30 plus years, and they mentioned the same thing. Average SAT scores drop from 1060 in 2021 to 1024 in 2024, about 40 points. Graduates enter a workforce in which only 31% of people in the United States report being engaged at work, while 52% are not engaged and 17% are actively disengaged. So we're not that interested in work these days. So here's where we start to get into the meat of the article, and I'm going to add some quotes that we've used on the podcast. Without God, and not just any God, folks, not any false God, you could set up all the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim schools in the nation that you wanted to, and it wouldn't do any good as far as improving the state of our country. It would actually make the problems worse. Without God, the Father of Jesus Christ, at the center of education, it is impossible to restore the foundation of education to character, morality, virtue, meaning. And that's true of our education system. It's true of our nation as a whole. If God, the Father of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, isn't the center of our institutions and our nation, we're just kind of spitting in the wind, folks. Talking about modern education just in general, what they've largely abandoned is the cultivation of character, the development of human beings who are both upright and capable, possessing virtue alongside ability. So our founders talked about this a number of times. One of the quotes, they talked about virtue all the time. And one of the quotes that I've used often is from John Adams, who was our second president. This is from June 21st, 1776. Statesmen, my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. And if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and their forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies. We can't have virtue without God, folks. It's just not going to happen. If we don't put God back at the center of our nation, the center of our institutions, nothing else we do matters. We're going to talk about this at least for one more day. Article. It's a great article, again, out of the Epic Times. I highly recommend it if you get a chance. Why education without character is failing America. And you could just say why a population without character is failing America in general across the board. And it's by the Complete Education Working Group at Fay Tand College Northern in Middleton, New York. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. If you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read along the lines of uh Narnia, Hobbit, Harry Potter, if you give Countryside a try, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoyed, if you'd leave a review somewhere, I would be very grateful for that. And if you're getting something out of the podcast each day and you think you have three or four or five dollars a month, uh there's a support slash donate page on the BuzzFrout website for the podcast. If you could do that, I would be extremely grateful for that as well. God bless y'all. God bless your families, God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.