TWENTY-TWO STEPS FROM ETERNITY!
By Curtis Ramey
My theme was 22 steps away from
the electric chair. Every road is arrived at by steps and so is
every destination, including the death house. The story from which
the theme arose is this: A young man, at age 20, sat in the death
row at Tennessee State Prison with only 7 hours remaining before he
took the last 22 steps to the chair. At that time, the eleventh
hour, the Governor of Tennessee commuted his sentence and spared his
life. He went about under "Operation Crime Prevention" telling his
story of how he was saved only 22 steps away. He said, "I was
brought up by Christian parents, and I had a good education. But
you're not sent to prison for going to church or school. I'm in
prison because I made the wrong decision." Remember what we said
about right values determine right thinking which determine right
decisions.
Here are 22 STEPS that just might set your child on the road to
the electric chair. Please note them carefully:
[CAROL'S NOTE: Please do not misunderstand this. The next 22
statements are NOT the training to give your child. They are STEPS
THAT MIGHT LEAD YOUR CHILD TO THE ELECTRIC CHAIR!]
1. Begin early and give your child everything he wants.
Then
he will believe the world owes him a living.
2. Start early in the child's life and do everything for him.
Never permit him to do the things he is capable of doing for
himself,
so he will be experienced in throwing burdens on
others.
3. Make him thoroughly dependent on you by waiting on
him,
until the habit is well established.
4. Permit the child to do as he pleases.
He will want to
continue this in society.
5. Praise him lavishly in his presence.
Show him how much
smarter he is than other children.
6. Tell religious jokes in his presence and
have a good laugh
at the expense of the "Holy Joes."
Tell him these religious
people are all fanatics.
7. Lose your temper easily. Blow up and bluster and
blast the
air around your child.
Unnerve him and prepare him for tension,
headaches and ulcers.
8. Tell people your child never does anything wrong.
9. Ride him all the time and tell him that he is clumsy
and
can't do anything right. Tell him things are too
hard for him,
and that he should not attempt the things he wants to do.
He will
accommodate his life to your expectations.
10. Always find fault with him and never compliment him
on the
things he does well. Nag him constantly.
11. Run down the government in his presence.
Cynically let him
hear you say that all politicians
are rotten and corrupt, and
that young people
are going to the dogs anyhow.
12. Interrogate him every time he comes home
from school or
any place about how he did, what he did,
and where he did it.
This will cause him to quit telling
you anything and clam up.
13. Avoid using the word "wrong." It may
develop in him a
guilt complex. This will prepare
him to believe that when he is
punished
later for something that society is "against him" and
that
he is being "persecuted."
14. Tell everyone that nothing is too good for your
child.
Pamper and pet him, and make life easy for him so if he
does
not have everything he wants, when times get hard, then he
will
be mentally prepared to take it by force or fraud.
15. Give him more spending money than he needs and never make
him
earn his own. Then, he will have little incentive to work.
16. Make him a cynic by letting him get the impression that there
is
another "real" story behind the first story. Poison his mind
with suspicion tendencies.
17. Quarrel frequently in his presence and he will be
prepared
for a contentious life and perhaps a broken home later
in his married life.
18. Satisfy every whim, caprice and craving for food, drink and
everything
that has to do with the sense of taste and touch.
19. Take his part against teachers, policemen, and neighbors.
They are
"do-gooders" and "prejudiced against your child."
Believe everything your boy says.
20. When he gets into real trouble, always defend yourself and
say,
"I never could do anything with that boy."
21. Try to pressure him into making top
grades when he is
naturally slow. This will help
him to be nervous, unpredictable
and eccentric.
22. Let him get the idea that it's all right to fudge on his
grades,
to tell "white lies," to "sow a little wild oats," and to
sneak into functions
and activities without paying. Enjoy a
hearty laugh with him over his little
escapades by which he foxed
someone with his budding criminal cunning, and
deceived someone
else with his disarming dishonesty and crookedness.
These 22 steps may not, but they also may, set your child on a
path
that leads straight to the cellblock that is 22 steps away
from a shameful death.
My friends, the home is in a process of deterioration. I implore
you to help arrest the process. Make sure your home becomes stronger
each day. Your children have more need of leaders than buddies, and
need a model in you. They may bless your name as long as they live
if you give them the vital training they need to live fruitfully in
a highly competitive world. Thank You.
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