We here in the United States are faced with the same problem that was experienced by the Israelites nearly 3000 years ago.  The first of these was at the time of one of the great prophet, Jeremiah.  At that time the King, government, and virtually all of the people no longer followed the laws of Moses.  Rather, they had developed their own customs and rules.  They had grown dependent upon only themselves and no longer felt the need to either follow God's rules or to look to him for help.  The corruption in the government had grown to the extreme. As a result, taxation had become unbearable, and the desire for wealth and money had made money, in effect, a new idol.
 In the middle of all of this their ancient enemies, the Orientals from what is now called Iran, where threatening to come down upon them, take their lands, and enslave their people. The Israelite king felt certain that they are ancient ally, Egypt, would come to their assistance.  He felt this could be relied upon them, as the Orientals [Babylonians] were as much hated by the Egyptians as they were by the Israelites.  The Israelites did not turn to God for help stating they didn't need it.  In the midst of this appeared Jeremiah, a renegade from the priesthood who had earned their hate by telling them how badly they had gone wrong.  Now the threat of the Babylonians placed a new threat and God told the Israelites, through Jeremiah, that if they did not go back to worshiping Him and following his laws and rules the Babylonians would capture them and enslave them for a period of 70 years.    The King, his generals, and the members of his court all assured him that all they needed were the Egyptians and they would be quite safe.
 To make a long story short, the Babylonians advanced, and the Egyptians did not come to the Israelites aid.  Consequently, the Israelite army was decimated, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the king and all of his people were taken captive.

 At the end of the 70 years, the Israelites returned to Jerusalem and began to rebuild it.  Selfishly, they rebuilt homes and businesses but they did not rebuild the Temple and consequently did not return to the worship of God.  The Prophet Haggaih told them that they must put God first in their lives or God would remove his blessings and his protection from their enemies.  This time they listened and their blessings became very great indeed. And, of course, God protected them and blessed them greatly, as he had promised.

 Approximately 2000 years later we find ourselves looking very much as the Israelites did a few hundred years before Jeremiah and again after their rescue at the time of Haggaih.  We have been given a great many gifts and blessings from God and we have been protected from all of our enemies.  However, instead of recognizing the blessings of the protection we have grown to feel that we are invincible and that no matter what we do we will be successful in battle with our enemies and we will be blessed with great prosperity.  To be a little more specific; Washington was able to defeat the British Army which was, at that time, the most powerful in the world.  In the war of 1812, the United States was able to beat the British Navy which at that day had become the most powerful in the world and we began the battle was only one “48 gun frigate”, the U.S.S. Constitution, now generally known as old iron sides.  A small company of men defeated a number of European forces at Tripoli in North Africa; similarly we beat a combination of German and Spanish armies in Cuba with a very small force.  Then in World War I we managed to defeat the forces of the Kaiser with a relatively small force whereas the other Europeans, with far more men than we had, had come to a standstill.  And, they were on the possible verge of losing that war. World War II found us badly outnumbered in both materials and men of war in defending both Europe and aht Far Ease.  And yet we defeated two enemies, the rest of the world had found undefeatable.  All of this time we had been receiving blessings like no other nation on earth had ever received before.  And our blessings grew and grew.
 Later we began to lose our countries great dependence and worship of God.  We then got involved in to relatively small wars in Korea and Vietnam.  In both cases we were unable to win those wars.  [Was God making it obvious he had withdrawn his total protection?]  In the 1960s era our country, as a whole, began to disrespect most of God's laws.  This began with the first commandment and worked its way all the way down through the remaining nine and most of the covenants.  Like the Israelites in the time of Jeremiah, money became more worshiped than God.  And today, we find our selves facing small armies we cannot defeat and we find our economy is slowing to a point of potential disaster.
 So here we are in the position of the Israelites at both the time of Jeremiah and the time of Haggaih. This places us at a crossroads.  If we continue on and do not return to God, most surely we will find ourselves with the same kinds of problems that destroyed the Israelites in Jeremiah's time and nearly defeated their rebuilding in Haggaih’s time.  Conversely, if we can manage to turn ourselves back around and become once again “One nation under God,” as was done following the admonition from Haggai; we could pick up where we left off after the 1980s.
 “Well, how do we accomplish that,”  you may ask?  “Do we find several people who can create great crusades?”  Perhaps.  “Can we find a wealthy man or group of men who want to promote this return to God through massive advertising?”  Perhaps.  Both of these would be very good and helpful but they rely on finding talent and/or resources that may or may not exist.  I am sure the defeatists among you would say,  “I don't believe so!”
 It would seem to me that our problem begins with a culture that does not adequately promote the love between a mother and her child.  A few years ago, a religious leader made the statement, “Give me a child until he is six and I will give you a child who will belong to my church forever."  I think the truth is even more general than that.  If today’s mothers will do what they are uniquely able to do, the battle can be turned around within the next three to five years.  That is, a child learns how to love and be loved from his mother beginning at the moment of birth.  If the child’s mother will teach this during the child's first five or six years of life, that child will know the great desirability of love of God, Family and Country.  And he or she will have an ability to give and receive it.  Of course, in some cases this is physically or financially impossible. In such cases, a grandmother or aunt can usually be found to provide this love and affection instruction at this critical time.  
 Once a child reaches the age of six, and begins to attend school, he or she learns from a wide variety of people.  It is important at that stage the child is given instruction in his family's religion.  Through this instruction the child will learn that it is very much to his or her own advantage to follow God's laws and covenants.  By the time childhood has turned into adulthood the new adult will want to apply this knowledge, of the behavior God expects, to all activities.  These adults, as parents, will insist doing only righteous actions in work or business.   They will want only righteous people elected to government office. Church and church activities will not be things that they do whenever “they have the time”, instead they will become things these parents do and then use the remainder of the time available for their other activities.  And finally, by the example these parents have shown, their children will surely follow.
 In conclusion I hope you will agree that the answer to our country’s current dilemma can be solved!  It only requires our society to recognize the value of its mothers’ love of God..  
 That recognition begins with every person who reads these words.