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I have seen the demise of respectful behavior from many children since spanking was taken out of our schools and homes.

Another major reason for this decline of respectfulness, I believe, has been the removal of prayer and the Ten Commandments from the schools.

I was blessed to have grown up at a time when the Lord’s Prayer was recited every morning in school after the Pledge of Allegiance was given.

I even remember learning the whole Christmas story in Luke 2:1-14 at Christmas in the third grade. I can still say those verses by heart (with a little help) even now.

I remember vividly Mrs. Morton having us repeat the verses every morning from the first of December until we got out for the Christmas holidays. I am still so appreciative for that precious teacher.

I learned that year how important repetition was in learning.

I remember. seeing the Ten Commandments located in several places throughout our school. It was placed where the children would be standing for awhile such as bus lines and cafeteria lines.

I firmly believe if we still had that in schools today there would be fewer riots and mobs destroying our country.

There would be fewer kids getting in trouble with the law. I believe if they did they would have respect for the policemen and do what the policemen tell them from the beginning.

The destruction and deaths caused by unruly kids who have no respect for anyone, not even themselves is growing. Somewhere, we as society have let it happen, since we did not speak out and we allowed prayer and God taken from our schools.

Parents have failed their kids by not spanking them and making them know the consequences of bad behavior.

A spanking on the butt never harmed any child. A beating is a different story.

You have to begin disciplining at birth by saying “No!” They soon learn what to touch and not to touch.

Later, around age two, I smacked the hands of my daughters just enough to get their attention and I never put anything up or off of the coffee tables or end tables. As a result, they only got spankings if they did not mind and they knew when I told them something I meant it and they knew never to tell me, “No!”

To this day when I hear a child sass their parents, I cringe.

I could not help but laugh when I saw on Facebook a lady come into a store and give her  teenage-looking son a good “butt whooping” with her belt that she pulled off and used in front of everybody. Evidently, she had told him not to take part in the Black Lives Matter movement, and even though she and her son were both black, she let him know she meant what she told him.

He never sassed her but took the belt whipping and then took out running to get home and away from her.

She was at least a head shorter than him, but I told my husband I guarantee you he will respect her once she is gone.

That scene reminded me of all the whippings we got as kids, but all five of us always had respect for our parents.

While I do not think it is good to embarrass kids in public, I do believe in making kids mind.

The recent mall shooting incident really put me to thinking as to what I could do to help change what is going on in the world.

To think one cannot go to shop without being afraid that something sinister will happen is just not right.

We as Americans are sitting back and watching big cities be torn apart, burned and literally destroyed with the perpetrators leaving scot free while the hardworking Americans are left to foot the bill.

This is not to mention the fact that innocent people are murdered along with all that.

The answer to this is not to have more protests but to have a change of heart.

I truly think the protests and the mob riots have done more harm than good for our country and is making more division in the races.

We can only hope that love, honor and morals will soon return to this country.

This quote by George Borrow is very true: “Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.”

We can only think for ourselves, but as the Bible verse says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he!” Proverbs 23:7

It is my thinking, we do not need more laws other than the laws in the Bible.

If we all lived by the Ten Commandments what a beautiful country we would have.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who is active in her church, First United Methodist Church, and her homemakers group, Towne and Country Homemakers.