I seldom yearn for “the good old days.” The quality of today’s cars, for example, far exceeds that of my first one, a 1935 model with only a manifold heater and a short lifespan. When somebody says, “They don’t make them like they used to,” I reply, “I’m sure glad they don’t.”

I do long, however, for a return to the “old paths, where the good way is” (Jer. 6:16). There was a time when schoolchildren were taught kindness, purity, loyalty, obedience to authority, and reverence for God. Back then, newspaper and magazine articles reflected the belief that we are moral beings who should exercise self-restraint and seek the good of others.

Today, this idea has largely been scrapped and replaced with the concept that we can be happy only when we have freedom to fulfill our every selfish desire. Rejecting the old paths is not new. In Jeremiah’s day, people weren’t ashamed of their sins (v.15). And when the prophet pleaded for them to return to the “good way,” they responded, “We will not walk in it” (v.16).

We need not be discouraged, however. God is still in control. We can show the way by loving people and praying for them. History records many revivals when multitudes returned to the old paths. It can happen again!