Standing on the Promises of My Ancestors

The youth culture is always changing, yet the need for confirmation and transformation remains the same. Young people are currently part of the family, church, and the community. The influences of society and culture have affected the family, church, schools, and the community in ways that are difficult to escape. The media contributes to young people's attitudes and behavior in a manner that influences their lives radically. Family, church, school, and community cannot deny the changes; they need to find ways to keep young people in a living relationship with themselves and the Lord. The current attempts to train the young people in the way they should go is failing because parents, teachers, the Church, and the community have lost their respectability. A lack of moral values and a breakdown in the family structure has caused a decline in the training of our youth. The training of young people in their early years is essential for a real future. At the heart of the trouble are a series of misunderstandings between young and old, school and the community, religion and the state, since the world in which young adolescents are growing up is fundamentally different from that in which their elders grew up, specifically post-9/11. So much has changed over the last twenty years it could be perceived as almost insurmountable.The theme of this book, "Standing on the Promises," will focus on our youth.

Dr. Anderson H. Ruffin is a son of the house of Evergreen Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. He shares more than forty-four years of teaching experiences of youth in public schools and as a Sunday school teacher. Dr. Ruffin has earned degrees from Alabama State University and Virginia University of Lynchburg.