THE death of Princess Margaret reminds me of my childhood and our King and Queen with their charming daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose.

When war came the Royal Family were a tremendous inspiration and encouragement to the nation as they shared in our sorrows and joys. How time flies and how sad I was to see little Margaret Rose become an invalid in a wheelchair.

Time is a precious gift from God so it's a sin to waste it. One of the joys of childhood is to daydream but this is not a waste of time so long as children play with toys for these are their tools, which help them not to become idle but industrious. Play is work for children!

Today the worst scenario is when television is allowed to produce unemployed children who don't know how to employ their imaginations and therefore become mentally and often physically flabby. Through television and commercial pressures children are receiving an MMR injection of Murder, Materialism and Rape and later become bored teenagers looking for trouble on the streets.

I'm thankful that during my teens the good hobby of making and flying model aeroplanes kept me out of mischief. But there was another factor that put me on the right road for a useful and satisfying life -- I was brought up to go to Sunday School!

Here the good seed of God's word was sown in my heart. This eventually surfaced at the age of 19 when I realised that God loved me so much that He gave His only Son to die for my sins.

From that moment on I could say with the Apostle Paul: "To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" Philippians 1:21.

Here is the secret of"days of heaven upon the earth" Deuteronomy 11:21.

David V. Jebson