DEAR GRANDPA

Dear Grandpa,

Everywhere I turn I am covered with rules to follow. I get rules from my mother and father about hours I must be home, study time, TV watching times allowed. My school puts out directives about dress and behavior. In my drivers ed course there are rules about driving I am supposed to know and pay attention to. I think I can make my own decisions about most of these without anyone telling me what to do and when to do it. I'll be glad when I am on my own and don't have any rules. Now I have a boyfriend who's trying to tell me what I can and can't do. Rules, rules, rules. I hate rules.

Looking for Freedoms

Dear Freedom,

The only reason we have rules, directives, laws and regulations is because we are living with one or more persons. If you were living alone, with no other person around, you might get away without rules. You could do as you please.

Your parents give you rules to guide you. To help you. Your school publishes procedures to make activities less hectic and more orderly. We're talking about hundreds of children and teachers. Some accord is needed or school would be one big disorder.

You need laws in driving. What if someone wanted to be different and drive on the left side of the road? What if someone never wanted to stop at an intersection and never stopped for a red traffic light?

Most of our rules to live by were first given us by God to Moses. They do provide us a guideline for our lives today.

I suggest you read "The Ten Commandments" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. You may have heard her on radio with her program, "Dr. Laura."

She does a good job of telling us how the thousands of years' old ten commandments are a good guide for our daily living today. Her book can be a big help to persons of all ages. Her book is about God's rules and how we can apply them today.

Dear Grandpa,

Christmas is coming up. My mother and father are divorced. She and I live together. I have no brothers or sisters. I would like to get her something really nice. She has a lot of nice things so it would be hard for me to decide on what to get her. I have one other problem, I'm broke. I can't afford to get her anything. I do love her a lot and she loves me. What could I get her that she would really like? I has to be something really low priced.

No name please

Dear Anonymous,

I keep repeating myself: we live in a materialistic society. We wrongly believe we must buy expensive gifts to make someone happy. Not so. When I was about 12 years old I had no money and my mother's birthday was the next day. I didn't know what to do. In desperation I wrote an eight-line poem to her. It was about how I love her and need her. I wrote it neatly and gave it to her in an envelope. She cherished that short poem until the day she died, some 50 years later.

Your gift does not have to be something you buy. Try a poem, from your heart.

If you have a question for Grandpa, send it to: Ask Grandpa, c/o Jackson USA Signal, 108 S. Hope, Jackson, Mo., 63755, or you can E-mail it to grandpat.stic.net.