Farm Progress

Reviving ‘old-school’ valuesReviving ‘old-school’ values

Higher Ground: This reunion committee plans to honor those who sacrificed because of ‘old-school’ values.

February 1, 2018

2 Min Read

By Wayne Knerr

I’m serving on my high school’s 50th reunion planning committee in Lehigh County, Pa. Guess that nails down about how old I might be.

These meetings have been a wonderful experience. One reason is our like-mindedness. During the first meeting, we talked about the experiences that set our high school years, and this reunion, apart from many others. Class members served in the military during the Vietnam era, and we talked about how these men and women were received upon their return. We vowed to make them a special part of our celebration.

What went missing
During our junior and senior high school years, prayer and Bible reading were taken out of our schools. We remembered that our 7th-grade days always began with the Pledge of Allegiance, a reading from the Bible and a prayer. In 8th grade, the Bible reading had been removed. By our senior year, all we had was a moment of silence.

I’m happy to say all nine of us on this committee found this to be something we needed to acknowledge at our reunion. We’re definitely going to have a passage from the Old Testament and a prayer as part of our celebration. It might be what Jesus said in Matthew 10:33: “Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father, who is in heaven.”

We talked about how strong our families seemed to be compared to those of today. We agreed our nation will never be truly great again until we instill in our young people the strength of family and the love of God’s Word.

Our graduating class had 318 members. Not all may think as we do. However, we intend to present a strong case for the foundation we received in our elementary school days — and let them know how we long for their return.

Knerr is president of South Jersey Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Farmers International. For more about FCFI, visit fcfi.org.

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