Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The Kids Are Alright. Or Are They?




"When I was a kid my parents moved alot, but I always found them."
- Rodney Dangerfield
For every unsettling story about kids there's always a feel good story,too. And we need those good stories to compensate for all the unfortunate tragedy we see in kids lives today. 
 
Just recently an eleven year-old named Lucy Li made the US Open Women's golf tournament as an amateur. Although she didn't make it past the first round, her presence made a difference within the seriousness surrounding children in today's society. I loved her response when a journalist asked her if she could beat her dad in golf, she just giggled.

Our children are so precious and yet it is very disturbing to see what they have to go through and face each and every day,even in America. You see it in the news on a regular basis: children killing children within the confines of their own school, kids being pawned off in human trafficking, and in Chicago, the murder capital of our country again, we have innocent kids being shot every weekend in front of their own homes.
 
It's good to remind ourselves each day that our children are not only precious in our sight, but in God's sight as well. And so it is our job to train them up in the Lord so they can be that shining light within the darkness that surrounds them.
  
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. 
(Proverbs 22:6)

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

As an old classic movie guru, I recently watched the original Cheaper by the Dozen made in 1950. It's the true story of an American family in the 1920's who had 12 children. Frank Gilbreth, Sr., was a pioneer in the field of motion study, and often used his family as guinea pigs (with amusing and sometimes embarrassing results). One funny scene was when he decided to record his children's tonsillectomy's in hopes of coming up with a better, efficient way of doing the surgery.

What's so interesting about this story is the father's persistence in training his children up for when they became adults. This would pay off in later years when the father suddenly passes away of a heart attack.
His wife Lillian would take over the family business while all of the children would tend to the household duties. Two of the eldest daughters even chose to for-go college to help raise the younger one's.

Lillian Gilbreth went on to become Time Magazine's Woman of the Year in 1948 for becoming the world's leading efficiency expert. In 1984 the US Post Office created a stamp with her image.
 
Along with training up our children we also need to pray for them daily before they leave the house. It's unfortunate that this is the way society is today, but that is also what's expected of us. Those of us who don't have children, but have plenty of kids within our family and church family, praying for them is also our responsibility.
 
Children are precious, let's keep it that way.
 
If you live in an area with no access to a Bible, click on www.biblegateway.com for more of God's encouraging Word.
 
 


 
 
 






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