Cherishing life

Liberty Lodge Young Leaders Project 2006 – part 2

This week we continue our article “Cherishing Life.” There are so many things in life that we cherish. There are items that we save like treasure. We take care of them, protect them and do everything possible to ensure that we do not lose them. What about life? Do we treat it that way? Too many of us do not. It is often said that life is what we make it. The way we live our lives determines the outcome of it. Life is cut short by sin but through the blood of Jesus Christ our lives can be saved.{{more}}

As young people today, we need to change course. Before my grandmother died she told me that the new generation would live as long as the older generation. When I asked why, she said our lives today are much more polluted. I did not understand what she meant by the word ‘polluted’ so I asked her to explain. She said that they did not mess with their lives the way we do. She continued, “We cherished our lives, we did not drink alcohol and smoke as teenagers.”

They were very concerned about what they put into their bodies. The food that they ate was the food that young people today refuse to eat. Fresh fruit and vegetables were abundant. The youth were more spiritually strong as parents ensured that children went to church, Sunday school or Sabbath school. More children grew up with the love and fear of God in their hearts and did not have to succumb to the evils that young people cherish today.

I would like to live to reach a century. Certainly granny achieved that landmark but that happened because she cherished her life very much. She lived a far cleaner life than I do.

We the Young Leaders of the Liberty Lodge Boys’ Training Centre appeal to the young people of our nation, the wider Caribbean and the world, let us make a change. Come let us cherish life from today in order to save it for tomorrow. We must start by saying a prayer to the Most High God first thing after waking up at mornings and last thing before taking to bed at nights. We need to read at least one chapter of the good book (The Holy Bible) each day. We need to do our chores at home and help out the family however we can. We need to show respect for our parents and those whom we depend on for the goods and services that we need for our survival. We must love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Let neighborly love continue.

You the adults we ask, why do you blame us for the wrong things we do? We see you do the very same wrong things all the time. We are like ‘parrots and monkeys’ saying and doing the things we hear and see you adults do. Show us how to cherish life by cherishing yours. You lead us right and we will follow. The double standards are not working for us. Set us a single standard! The good standard! The right example!

Abdoula Louie