[Nowhere Man]

If anything I say can help even one person learn to avoid the pitfalls of instant gratification, or following the herd because everyone else is going that way, withstand being pressued into wrong just in order to feel liked or accepted, or gain a little inner conviction that God does exist, and it does matter to Him what choices we make - I'll be happy.

I have another thought too, I think a lot of this is also cause by our rampant consumerist society. Glenn Beck was talking about this one day last week on his show. Commercialism and consumerism has it's places, sure, but when we start adopting a mentality of having it all now and buying to keep up with the Joneses and so on, we run into problems both financially and spiritually. Everyone wants the latest HDTV, car, $350K house and are ill able to afford it but are willing to chase it at the expense of Godly living, family and so on.

[little jeremiah]

I agree more than 100%. Material goodies do not bring happniness, and if the ownership of all the good stuff is the center of one's existence either individually or as a family, it is like a tree without a root, a body without a hert.