"I believe the children are our future..."

 


There is a sad story playing out in Waseca, MN of a 17 year old boy who was found to have an arsenal of weapons and ammunition at his disposal. When asked why he felt he needed to have so many guns, he said it was his plan to harm/kill his family, a nearby school and finally, he hoped for a showdown with the SWAT team, who would then kill him. This boy was a model student, had a job, was book smart and had friends, yet no one saw this one coming. His father is beside himself with grief. "What could I have done different?" he begs to know.

Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town in Omaha, NE was known to have a heart full of love for children. "There is no such things as a bad boy!" was his motto. I wonder what his reaction to this Waseca boy's story would have been. Would he have shook his head and brushed him aside, saying, "you'll never amount to a hill of beans!?" or would he have been like Jesus, who performed a miracle,  as he did in Scripture (Mark 9:1-23 )

A distraught father once had an unruly son with multiple physical and emotional problems. Many people even said the boy was possessed by a demon. The dad had tried everything, but the boy continued to demonstrate antisocial behavior: throwing himself in the fire and then in water. That sort of behavior, on top of frequent seizures, rolling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, and an inability to talk, made the dad desperate to find a solution. He even took the boy to some faith healers who were traveling through his hometown. But nothing seemed to work.

Finally, the dad realized no human being was going to be able to help his son, so he took him directly to God. The father heard that Jesus was visiting in his community, so he boldly brought the boy to Him. With desperation in his voice the father pleaded, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

And Jesus answered, “If You can! All things are possible to him who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe: help my unbelief.”

With that profession, Jesus healed the man’s son.

I look at our world, so full of pain and hate. When bombs go off and people are hurt, where did we go wrong? Who have we let down with our choosing to look away? "He's just a rotten kid!" "She will never amount to anything!" "May as well put him in juvenile hall!"
How about prayer? Who has time anymore to simply sit down int he quiet of a moment and ask God for guidance, for help, for patience in coping with our kids and their whims? Well, perhaps we ALL should! The evils of this world are lurking about, waiting to pull our kids in. Kids are vulnerable to whatever forces lurk out there and with the advent of the internet, those forces are available to anyone at the click of a finger. Porn? it's there! Drugs? Yup, that too. Even cult-like ideas, ready access to guns, ammo, and how to make bombs. All there. When I was young, blowing bubble gum in school could get one  a trip to see the principal, nowadays, that tiny "crime" is laughable compared to what educators across the country are dealing with: lockdowns, bombs on schoolyards and sadly, acts of destruction such as what happened at Columbine...at Sandy Hook...and people shake their heads and wonder why.

Today and everyday, wrap yourself around a child that you know who may or may not need your help, your kind words, your prayers...your expectations that they are the greatest gift that God has given to us. Help them to succeed! We can either cut a child down or build a child up with our words and deeds. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child up in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it!" Much as one would when growing a plant, it takes nurturing, pruning, repotting, daily watching to finally have it as we would like it. Isn't a child's life worth so much more?