I have seen so many changes in my world in the past few years.  Growing up in my little West Virginia home as a child I never worried about anything.  Looking back now I realize that Mama was an amazing woman.  She lived on a widows pension,  but I can't remember ever being poor.  Mama sewed dresses for me that she got from the Salvation Army and yard sales.  She sewed curtains and put trim on cheap towels and linens and made them look like a million bucks.  We lived in a trailor but never were thought of as poor.   It was not until I was out of high school that Mama shared with me many stories about my church clothes I wore as a child with all it's ribbons and bows and lace.  She explained making fancy dresses for my high school dances,  and how she sewed Gloria Vanderbilt nametags on the clothes she found at yard sells around town.  My Mama always put me first and I  never  remember her ever complaining.

When I got my driver's lic  at 16  I drove Mama everywhere.  I was put on her insurance for next to nothing and gas was 89 cents a gallon.  When I started working out of town  I had no problem putting gas in my car.  I even took us on short trips,  and we would go to a lot of Gospel Sings which my Mama loved. I never thought about gas prices.

Now since my little girl was born it seems life has always been hard.  I've always been blessed but life sure has changed since I was a young girl.   I can remember when my little girl was younger how I would pretend to have money .  Like our first Christmas on our own when I went to Walmart and bought  a make-up promotional item with 15 pieces including a cute little purse.  It cost 7.95.  I stayed up half the night wrapping each item individually so she would have a lot to unwrap come Christmas morning.  Now that she is a teenager it breaks my heart because  I have to be honest when her school has a fied trip to Kennedy space center or I don't have money for her to have big birthday parties.  She is an humble child and she never complians about what she doesn't have...she has  just stoped  telling me when she has things that take money. I often find litttle slips of paper in her bookbag where she could have done something that cost money,  but didn't ask. 

God help our nation.  People who use to be considered middle class are now  at poverty level.  My childhood never entailed knowing just how poor we were.  Now kids in school mistreat classmates that are not up to thier standards.   No wonder so many young people feel worthless.  Money is a sign of POWER.  Without money you are viewed as nothing.

God help our nation.  I felt so proud when people began praying after 911,  but a sermon at church made a good point...The same people who were praying for AMERICA before 911 were the same people praying for our country after 911,  because  not everyone that fell to thier knees gave thier heart to God ( although I am sure many did)  so God was not honored by those prayers.

God PLEASE help our nation.  I never dreamed that  I would ever see a day when gas prices would  rise 2 or 3 times in one day.  You can drive down the street and come back through and gas has gone up 2 or 3 cents.  That's unbelieveable.  The saddest part is that it is starting to affect how often people go to church.  I use to go Sunday morning, Sunday night,  Tuesday Prayer services,  and Saturday Gospel sings.  Now I go on Sunday Morning.  There use to be a Thursday night Bible study but that has been combined with the Tuesday night service because people said they couldn't make both services because of the cost of gas.   We use to have a lot more church dinners  like in the good old days,  but even they have been cut back due to the price of making food to bring in.  What use to be  once a month has been cut back to  Special Holidays.

 Now I fear that life as we knew it  will never be again.  Now the only traveling I do is in my mind back to my little country home.

Does the economy affect how often  you attend church  and what activities your church has?