I have been looking for a book in my library for months. Did I lose it or did I loan it to a friend a long time ago? The book is titled Broken Homes and Handicapped Children by V. E. Howard, published in 1972. Fortunately, I found it on my bookshelf. I don’t know how I missed finding it for such a long time. It can’t be age!
The theme of the book was basically about alcohol and drug abuse has destroyed many homes, thus handicapping innocent children. The book was the product of a series of lessons presented by V. E. Howard over the radio. In the foreword of the book V.E. Howard wrote:
This series of discussions on the theme, “Broken Homes and Handicapped Children,” has been presented over more than 100 stations of the World Radio Gospel Hour network. Because of the vital nature of the material, it is also being published in the hope that thousands will be stimulated to re-examine their own homes and lives.
Being fully aware that many of the matters are controversial and even frightening, I pray that you will sincerely study the problems and solutions that are detailed and documented in these pages. The menace to the modern home has never been greater than it is today. We must open our eyes to the graphic danger signals all around us and seek God and His help while there is still hope. As Hosea, God’s prophet of old, exhorted: “Break up your fellow ground; for it is time to seek Jehovah” (Hosea 10:12).
On page 61 the following is noted:
Tom Tiede, newswriter (NEA), New York, wrote, “You may be killed by the only guy in your town who can get away with murder. …Drunk drivers rank among American’s most vicious criminals… Last year drunk drivers killed twice as many citizens – 30,000 – as did rapists, robbers, arsonists and thieves combined. They destroy six times as much property as was stolen in the entire nation. In short, as one Department of Transportation official observed, “They are probably the No. 1 crime problem in the nation today.”
Friends, let us understand that the above was written in 1972. Presently, the public is bombarded with advertisements on TV concerning alcohol consumption. Hollywood movies and sitcoms continue to glorify negative lifestyles. We ask, what are the statistics and problems today with alcohol and drugs? Mind-boggling, is it not?
My growing-up years were bittersweet because of the constant drinking by my father. He had many good traits, but he became Mr. Hyde too many times. Too often I feared him. No, he terrified me. Getting on a bus on a cold March morning to enter the Regular Army in 1951 became one of the happiest days of my life. To remember this bitter time brings tears to my eyes even to this day.
I am thankful I met my future wife while serving in the Army overseas. We vowed in marriage that if we were blessed with children, they would not suffer the bitterness of a broken home. As Shirley and I approach our sixty-year of marriage in April 2013, alcohol was not part of our life, thank God. The home is of divine origin. “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:23-25 KJV).
