HEED WISE TEEN-AGER'S WORDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993                   TAG: 9302100370
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
HEED WISE TEEN-AGER'S WORDS
OUR PARENTS and their parents before them had prayer in school, and when I was growing up, we had a prayer every morning before we started our work for the day. Just look at the problems we have now that we didn't have then. Why in the world would a prayer be considered disruptive? Those who didn't want to be involved could busy themselves elsewhere.
As Crystal Blankenship said in her letter to the editor Jan. 21, our schools teach sex, alcohol, drugs and violence and there is nothing there to balance all this out. This 15-year-old girl has more wisdom than all our high courts put together. It's time for somebody to listen to her.
In reference to Adrian Blevins-Church's commentary Feb. 2, "The healing power of song," my dad used to sing to me when I had tears and when I was happy. I'll always remember him singing about Johnson's old gray mule and Simon Split. He always sang the songs that he had learned as a boy growing up in church.
While I loved that, I could never let that take the place of my need for God in my life. There will always be the need for prayer. God said, "Just ask and ye shall receive." MAGGIE STEVENS ROANOKE

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB